A half-baked mandate

Minot (N.D.) Daily News: If you are a low-income woman planning to pay for all or part of your groceries with vouchers from the federal WIC program, feel free to load up the cart with any fruits and vegetables you like.

Except potatoes. They are banned under the Women, Infants and Children nutrition program. Why? WIC clients might use them to make french fries.

That is why the WIC program has banned potatoes — because oils used to cook french fries may be unhealthy. Never mind the many benefits of potatoes, including nutrition, cost and versatility. The humble spud can be prepared in many healthy ways.

A bill in Congress includes a provision that would allow WIC clients to use vouchers to purchase potatoes. Obviously, the measure should be enacted.

Bureaucrats in charge of the modern Nanny State often decide to use government to inflict their philosophies about what is good and bad on the rest of us.

The WIC potato ban is just one in a long list of half-baked mandates from Washington. Good riddance to it.