Isn't "the government shouldn't choose how people spend their own money" a conservative principle? There's something odd about this debate...
It's a debate is about what is necessary in life vs what's in the I want category because the taxpayers are funding the lifestyle. But you know that, you are choosing to ignore a perfectly reasonable distinction.
Forgive me if I'm wrong, but a centrally-planned economy in which the government measures and provides for people's needs, without letting them choose how to allocate their own resources, is not acceptable on conservative grounds, even if the victims aren't taxpayers. (Although, the vast majority of working-age, able-bodied welfare recipients
are taxpayers, and most of the rest either were or will become taxpayers.) The conservative objection to communism isn't just that
rich people shouldn't be subjected to it. Forcing people to buy health insurance (also a need) is also not acceptable on conservative grounds, because we're supposed to trust people to decide for themselves how to spend their own money (even though those who "choose" not to buy health insurance are uniformly poor).
But sure, there's definitely no contradiction here, my observation must be intentionally, maliciously wrong.
Well, that's the point, isn't it? It's NOT their own money they're spending.
Sure it is. They receive it from the government, fair and square, according to the same rules which apply to everyone.
There's also the principle of agreeing that although people do have a right to do stupid & self-destructive things, it's good to use education and information to try to persuade them to make different choices. As with smoking, for instance.
Agreed, but this "education and information" doesn't really include restricting what people can spend their benefits on.