Wicked WIC

It can't be said often enough that the rules governing what is and isn't eligible for purchase under the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program is crazy and horrible (Ezra example -- soy milk doesn't count as "milk" but chocolate milk does). You could try to modify the program to make it less crazy, but it's obviously the result of a screwed up political process and undue power on the part of Big Cow. It seems to me that we should just scrap the whole thing and make WIC-eligible people eligible for larger food stamp grants. The food stamps program is far from perfect, but it's a lot less ridiculous and the reasoning behind the idea of two separate-but-similar programs is less than compelling.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2008/05/wicked-wic/44925/