Transcripts For CNNW Crossfire 20140529 : vimarsana.com

Public interest and Genevieve Wood of the heritage foundation. Who should decide whats in your childs lunch . Science or the Food Industry . Tonight, on crossfire. Welcome to crossfire. Im Newt Gingrich on the right. Im Stephanie Cutter on the left. In the crossfire tonight, guests who disagree on what our kids should eat at school. The first lady summed up the argument, i quote, as parents we always put our childrens interests first. Our leaders in washington should do the same. Yes, they should. But they arent. In 2010, at the urging of Michelle Obama, Congress Passed higher nutritional standards for School Lunches. Based on science, if kids eat healthier theyll do better in school. 90 of schools are already doing this, implementing these standards but 10 are dragging their feet. Today House Republicans are using ridiculous nanny state excuse to undo the standards. Spending 11 million a year of taxpayer dollars on School Lunches. Lets not spend it on lunch. Leads to higher rates of obesity and Higher Health care costs. Im a new mom. I dont think you need years of parenting experience to know what the House Republicans are doing is just right. Newt, it has nothing to do with a year delay in these nutrition standards. They are trying to undo the standards altogether and undo the School Lunch Program. I can also claim to be a parent and grandparent. You have much more experience than i do. My only point what i want to start with is this whole notion, people should actually read the language. Ive never seen this much hysteria over a very narrow amendment. Well get to that. In the crossfire, margo wutan, nutritional advocate and genevieve. Let me start. Ive read it. Youre an expert in this area. It says only a district that verifies a net loss from operating a Food Service Program for a period of at least six months can apply what theyre applying for is a oneyear delay. And yet the hysteria on the left is as though this was a bill to eliminate the School Lunch Program. Well, theyve been talking about this as providing very narrow flexibles on issues like salt and whole grains, but its not. This would allow schools to opt out of all the School Nutrition standards for a year. This would take us back in time to the days when schools were selling Unhealthy Foods and allow junk food back into the School Lunch Program. Wait, wait. Ive read it. All it says is the department of agriculture could waive for one year. All the nutrition youre suggesting that this is sort of the classic conservative liberal problem in america. Youre suggesting that there are School Districts in america that dislike their children so much that they are so eager to get their children junk food that theyre going to use this loophole to do vicious things to their own children . You know, actually, newt, there is evidence to show that before these School Nutrition standards went into effect, less than 15 of schools were serving Healthy School lunches. Now under the new standards, 90 are, so the standards are working. Why roll them back . Were talking about very small number of schools are having problems. Most schools are thats not true. Youre punishing 90 of the kids for a very small problem. Genevieve, i have a question for you. The School Lunch Program serves 30 million kids most of whom are from needy families, most of whom this is their biggest meal of the day. Were spending more than 11 billion on this program. Why wouldnt we want the most nutritious foods to be served to these kids . Well, i think that we do, but i would of course ask why the Obama Administration who gives out a lot more money in food stamps to were talking about the School Lunch Program. I understand. Thats government sponsored and we let people do you believe no, i dont think there ought to be regulations on that. Let me explain. School wlunlunches should have standards whatsoever. This isnt about the standards. Its about implementing them. Can schools actually did it . You said 90 are doing it. Thats right. Theyre finding out its costing a lot more money than they have in their budgets to do this. You have some schools saving money because theyre getting higher participation. No, you do not have higher participation. You actually do. You actually had over a Million Students drop out of the School Lunch Program last year which after decades of us actually having students increase in the program thats not true. Let me finish. You had over a million drop off because they dont like the food and going down since 2007. This decrease in participation is of concern, and its something that weve been focused on. But its been going down since 2007. Why do you think its happening . Its a mix of things. I think its kids bringing their lunch from home because the food wasnt healthy. And a lot of parents opted out of the School Lunch Program because they didnt think the food was healthy enough. Many of them dont know about these changes that have been taking place and that the food has been getting better. In the first full year of implementation last year, thats when you lost a million kids. So they were dropping out because they did not like thats now troot. I dont think you have the facts right. The fact is they dont like the food. Schools are saying we cant afford this. Some schools are taking money out of their teaching budgets to make up the difference here. Lets be clear. What are our schools number one priority . Teaching kids how to read, how to do math. Theyre already failing in that category. So now Michelle Obama thinks we need to come in and tell everybody how to eat. Okay. Let me get clear on this. Do you believe there should be any nutritional standards in our School Lunch Program . We have nutritional standards. Do you think they should be upgraded . I dont know that the federal government is the one who ought to be setting them. How about who should . Who should . How about the national the School Nutritional association that says theyre wanting this delay because they want how do you enforce standards . What do you mean . If i live in massachusetts and my standards arent as good as in georgia, you go to your school board and say, mr. School board and mrs. School board, we would like you to make changes here. The 11 billion were spending on this program, we think schools should decide amongst themselves what they should serve. I think schools i think people at the local district, i think the National School Board Association who has asked for the waiver, School Nutrition Association Group asked for the waiver on this, know more about the nutrition group. Knows more than this is not a local program. This is the national School Lunch Program. Exactly. States and localities kick in less than 10 of the money. These are federal dollars for a federal nutrition program. If were going to spend all these billions of dollars theyre saying, the schools are saying the money coming from the federal government is not enough to do what the federal government is asking them to do. Im sure you know where this program started. Harry truman started the School Lunch Program because too many young people were being rejected from the military because of malnutrition. If theres a supporter bigger than the u. S. Military for this program right now, i dont know who it is. We need to get healthy meals in their schools. I understand that. Why on earth where youre giving 80 billion a year in food stamps and you have parents buying food for their children, and theyre buying this is not food stamps. Those are federal dollars guys, you are talking about were talking about federal dollars were talking about School Lunches. Federal dollars for food. Right . Thats what were talking about. Lets talk about the program from the standpoint. This is part of why the country is increasingly, i think, opposed to the federal government. These things are all implemented locally. They are local people hired in a local cafeteria run by a local with federal money but im just saying, if somebody locally, and its the School Nutrition people who came back and asked for this waiver. They said, we have enough problems of implementation locally. People in washington say, oh, we know better. Now, you know, we just asked the question the other day, should government play a significant role in reducing obesity . The country overwhelmingly is concerned about obesity. 81 say theyre concerned. But by 54 42 , the country said the federal government shouldnt. I think the reason is just youre living through the Veterans Administration meltdown, youre living through the failure to control the border, living through obamacare, living through the irs having all sorts of problems and people look up and say this is another federal thing that is clumsy. Its working. Its working great. Why cant why cant you say i do accept 90 . And so that 10 , the answer to the struggles that a couple of schools, a handful of schools are having on a few standards is not to feed unhealthy food to our kids. Its to help those schools do better. To give them Technical Assistance and training so that they can do you guys are not youre not putting the real numbers out there. Theres a Government Accountability study that looked at this. Which ive read. It doesnt say that. It said 48 states said they were having trouble, their schools were having trouble. I have to go to a break. I would suggest for the average american to be told that the federal government is not going to help you fix the problem the government gave you it happens every single day in our schools. Next, i want to share with you what the government sees as the latest threat to the nations health. The potato. First, todays crossfire quiz. How much did the government spend on good stamps last year . Is it 20 billion, 50 billion, or 80 billion . Well have the answer when we get back. This is the first power plant in the country to combine solar and natural gas at the same location. During the day, we generate as much electricity as we can using solar. At night and when its cloudy, we use more natural gas. This ensures we can produce Clean Electricity whenever our customers need it. Welcome back. Today, House Republicans beat back a democratic attempt to enforce rigid government standards for the food schools served to students. It showed another example of massive Government Intervention which almost always backfires. Here are some more examples. A couple years ago, new york city discovered 20 of the students in its breakfast in the Classroom Program were eating two breakfasts. One at home then another at school. The excess calories were making them fat. A recent studty shows consumption of School Lunches is the strongest single predictor of Childhood Obesity and a longterm study found young girls on food stamps are 43 more likely to be overweight which brings us to the answer to our crossfire quiz. The government spent almost 80 billion in food stamps last year, a record. M margo wootan and Genevieve Wood are here with us. Just before the break i held up my potato which is actually the wic program, another government food program. The government has now decided that people, women should not be allowed to buy white potatoes under the wic program because people buy white potatoes, okay . Since you already buy white potatoes because you really like them, you cant buy white potatoes with this money because we decided you cant buy the thing you like. My question for you is this. I think this is fully as legitimate as stephanies belief that republicans are going to abolish the School Lunch Program on tuesday. Fact is, people can say, so lets say next year the government decides we should all be vegetarians. Or the government decides in two years that no one should eat beef or that butter is now bad. So, at what point does the nanny state become so absurdly opposed to Popular Culture that you have to back up a long step and say, wait a second, do i really want you in my life on every front . Were not trying to get in your life on every front. Were not going into your refrigerator, not telling you what to buy. The wic food program is called the Supplemental Nutrition Program for women, infants and children. The goal of that program is to provides food and nutrients that are lacking in lowincome women and childrens diets. And so its not like food stamps where it just gives Family Resources to buy whatever food they want. Theres a list of foods that are part of the wic food package and those foods are designed to meet specific nutrient deficiencies that are common in low you mean this is not a nutrition deficiency . Is that the point . Turns out that the potato industry is doing just fine and plenty of women ate them. People are buying potatoes. Nobody are saying potatoes are bad but saying this is a supplemental food package to fill your theyre already getting access to it. The design is to fill nutritional gaps. Theres no gap in potatoes so theres no need to provide extra money to people to buy potatoes. Part of the countrys reaction i think to whats going on in washington, this has been a growing feeling for at least 30 years is the elites have decided they will now tell us what they have decided, their experts have told them we should do and who we should be and how we should do it. Thats not the case. So the School Lunch Program, were spending all this money, were providing it to schools to serve a healthy lunch to kids. We need to say what a healthy lunch is. So there are standards. If youre going have a nutrition program, you should have nutritious food. Why dont we let the nutritionists at the state level and local level go to the school as im sure you did . We dont think the nutrition in georgia and new york, places dont know what Good Nutrition is . If it was a local program only Michelle Obama knows what Good Nutrition is. Michelle obama did not set the nutrition standards. Shes not a nutritionist and understands that. We have the Nutrition Association saying we need time to implement it better. They supported the law theyre asking for time and youre saying no. Look, guys genevieve, i want to ask you a question. Education, health care, now apparently even what we can eat. You know what, if you guys heres a question for you. A study that newt cited about the best indicator of Childhood Obesity is School Lunch Programs. What that study was actually talking about is the old standards, not the current standards. It cites actually the new standards are the best solution to Childhood Obesity in our school system. I talked to a couple of nutrition officials today at the one of them in burke, georgia, since these standards have gone into place, and this is according to donna martin, her test scores are up. Graduation rates are up. Thats wonderful. Their Football Team that was diagnosed by the cdc with malnutrition has gone on to win the state championship. Wonderful. So that is an example of its working. And she credits these nutritional standards. Nobody is saying theyre based on sound science. I know you want to toss science around as though the rest of us dont believe in science and Good Nutrition. Thats just not true. Number one, nobody is saying to that school theyve got to change. The question is if its working for them, let them do it but if there is another school saying we are having to take money away from our teaching, our Football Team, whatever happens, then we need to find the same study led to Childhood Obesity. You want to say because it works here, it will have to work in these 100 other places. And it doesnt work that way. And stephanie, you know, that come on. These are nutrition standards that outline food groups and nutrients that things should be. And nobody is changing that. The local district implements those and decides which foods to offer. Is that called choice . If figuring out what exactly to offer based on nutritional standards . That sounds like choice to me. Schools have a choice whether to take the federal money or not. Thats right. If they choose not to take the money, they can this is like a you need to expand your medicaid roles, but if you dont do it our way, we wont give you the money. Come on, thats called blackmail from washington. You did it in obamacare and now youre doing it here. You have to meet some nutrition standards. Come on. So youre saying that some of the poorest districts in america who are the ones that have this problem. Remember, the 90 . The 90 is not a lot of those are poor districts. Right. That are doing well. There are also districts that are saying this is costing us a lot of extra money. I guess what gets to a lot of us is the arrogance of washington saying no, no, weve never visited your town. We have no idea. We have visited your town. Come on. You havent visited all these places. Usda has been going around and visiting schools all around the country. And they are offering flexibility. Not one school has been fined over these new nutrition standards. When a school is struggling, they provide them then why are so many schools complaining . Were going to have to take break. They dont enforce. They dont get rid of the standards. Everyone, stay here. We want you at home to weigh in on todays fireback question. Should government require healthier School Lunches . Tweet yes or no, crossfire. Well have the results after the break. Also we also will have the outrages of the day, including an outrage claim by a thinskinned movie star. You can guess who. What can i do on a 7 a month android plan from tracfone . Check the weather. Borrow teds wheelbarrow. Post big tomato pics. Buy a birdhouse for sparrows. Download gardening apps. Answer my wifes texts. Search how to sculpt hedges into a trex. I can do all that with my android from tracfone for as low as 7 a month. [ male announcer ] unbeatable nationwide coverage, no contract. 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I would email the phone company to inquire as to why they have shortchanged these customers. But that would require wifi. Switch to comcast Business Internet and get two Wifi Networks included. Comcast business built for business. Welcome back. Now its time for the outrages of the day. Im outraged about something Gwyneth Paltrow said. In a recent interview, the actress complained, quote, you come across online comments about yourself and your friends and its a very dehumanizing thing. Its almost like how in war you go through this bloody dehumanizing thing. Sorry, no. Ive read plenty of nasty things about myself online. And those viewers out there, you know who you are, and i dont like it, but it comes with the territory. And while i havent been to war, have i plenty of people in my life who have. And i think its quite a bit harder, more dangerous, require morse sacrifice than reading mean comments written by an Anonymous Online posters. So gwyneth, please stop talking. Instead, go to a hospital and visit wounded troops. Youll understand what war really myron, its an amazing comment on her part. Here at home with incompetent politicians always need more money. They just took taxation to new heights of absurd di. If you get your carpet cleaned, youll pay a new tax. A new tax on bottled water if you have a it delivered. Yoga studios and gym membership news carry a new tax. So in d. C. , you cant be clean, healthy, or thirsty without being taxed. Patiently d. C. Politicians have decided theyre in competition with new york city to be the capital of the nanny state. But there will probably be a tax on that too. Lets check on our fireback results should. Government require healthier School Lunches . Right now 72 of you say yes. 28 say no. Im going to put it back to you two, for im sure will be a very rigorous debate on the results of that. Actually, thats very similar to National Polls that show the overwhelming majority of parents want healthier food in schools. Of course, who doesnt want the kids to eat healthier . And we want the School Lunches to be healthier. Of course we do. The question is how do you go about it and are you take aing away in some cases as apparently we are what the schools core function is education and funneling programs that they cant afford into this. I think we ought to be giving schools a year to figure it out. Thats the least we can do. Its interesting difference. I think if you asked the question should struggling districts have some flexibility to meet federal standard, you would have gotten an almost equally large number. Well try that out one night. Im not surprised by the results myself. Thanks to margo smooth wootan and Genevieve Wood. The debate continues online as well as on facebook and twitter prchlt the left, im Stephanie Cutter. From the right, im Newt Gingrich. Join us next time for another edition of crossfire. Erin Burnett Outfront starts right now. Next, another major setback on the hunt for flight 370. Have searchers been looking in the wrong spot the entire time . And then pour the fifth time in one month, two planes involved in a near collision in the united states. And an outfront investigation. Rampage killings by affluent young men. Did their parents make a huge mistake by sending them to therapy . Lets go outfront. Good evening, everyone. Im erin Burnett Outfront. Outfront tonight, breaking news. Embattled clippers owner Donald Sterling declaring war on the nba. We also have a report from the los ange