GOP Lawmakers Want To Prohibit Restrictions On Big Gulp Sodas

A provision added to the state budget by Republicans would prohibit Wisconsin communities from banning Big Gulp sodas or other sugary drinks.

It comes just two days after Republicans limited the ability of poor people to buy soda with food stamps.

The measure would mean there could never be a New York City-style limit on the size of sodas in Wisconsin. It would ban any restrictions on calories, portion size or other nutritional criteria. Rep. Pat Strachota (R-West Bend) is the measure’s sponsor.

“When I want to go to the movie theater and get that big thing of soda and the biggest popcorn I can get to have that experience at the movie theater…I want to make sure that I can continue to have that experience and that I don’t have government telling me I can’t have that experience.”

Strachota says she had heard the cities of Madison and Stevens Point were considering some type of serving size ordinances.

The move comes just two days after Republicans supported a measure in the Wisconsin Assembly that would only let food stamp recipients spend a third of their benefits on junk food. At the time, Republicans said they were following the lead of First Lady Michele Obama to encourage more nutritious foods. Rep. Cory Mason (D-Racine) voted for that plan, but he said this was an about-face.

“It belies any genuine argument that you were making about it being about nutrition, and makes it seem as though all you were really doing was going after the way poor people behave and not everybody else.”

Republicans say the food stamp bill was different because it involved junk food bought with taxpayer money. The proposal passed on a party-line vote. It would still need the full legislature and the governor’s OK.