Ted Deutch, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and other S. Fla. members of Congress take food stamp challenge

Anthony Man, Sun Sentinel

They make a comfortable $174,000 a year. But in recent days, each spent just $4.50 a day on food — and found out it wasn’t too easy.

Lunch one day last week for U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz D-Weston, was a tuna sandwich, an apple and tap water.

U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch D-Boca Raton, took the challenge two weeks ago. “I bought a cup of coffee at a meeting one morning, which left me enough to have ramen noodles at lunch. And just enough money for macaroni and cheese for dinner.”

Another day, his daughter’s school had a blood drive. “I was thrilled that I could have a free doughnut just by giving blood.”

There’s a political point, of course. Wasserman Schultz and Deutch were among the 13 members of Congress – out of 435 – who took the “food stamp challenge aimed at showing what it’s like to live on what the government program provides people who need food assistance.

“It just makes you realize how difficult it is for so many people in our society,” Deutch said. “I knew that I was only going to do this for a few days, so it was easy to look forward to the end of this, but for people who are hungry, there is no immediate end.”

Not everyone thinks the idea was so great. “Obviously, no one wants people to starve. But Democrats often use people’s compassion to promote unhealthy programs that 1) aren’t effective, 2) waste hard-earned money and 3) expand government,” complained a contributor at the conservative website Townhall.com.

And members of Congress face challenges that most food stamp recipients don’t.

Wasserman Schultz tweeted that she bought a jar of generic peanut butter to help stretch her meals. But she was traveling and the Transportation Security Agency confiscated it, considering the peanut butter a liquid.