"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'"

                                       -Ronald Reagan

Just as health reform is not really about health, the left’s official 8 year war on obesity is not about improving anyone’s well being. It is about the amount of control which can be leveraged against the liberty of the individual-the avowed goal of all statists.

In 2001, the Office of the Surgeon General, then headed by Dr. David Thatcher, fired the first shot in the obesity war with its report- “The Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Prevent and Decrease Overweight and Obesity.” Among the report’s five core principles we find the rub of the concern. The fourth principle-disingenuously chronicled as it is the overriding intention of the matter-espouses to “Encourage environmental changes that help prevent overweight and obesity.”  That would be your environment.

President Obama, in a conference call to his minions at Organizing for America is quoted as saying “If we went back to the obesity rates that existed back in the 1980’s, the Medicare system over several years could save as much as a trillion dollars.” The Centers for Disease Control exposed the sophism of this statement showing that if this were to occur (can he not make it so?) the savings to the government program would be more like 12-15 billion dollars a year. Therefore, it would require 67-83 years to accomplish the President’s predicted savings. 

Further attestation to his penchant for blundering is his recent appointment of an obese individual to the Office of the Surgeon General.

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS), now headed by Dr. Ralph Cicerone, recognized for his award winning research on climate change, is the home of its companion in the National Academy the Institute of Medicine (IOM). Through its charter and the authority given to it in the 1972 Federal Advisory Committee Act, the NAS and IOM are positioned to give influential advice on matters of health to the President.

When environments-like the one in your bank account- need changing, liberals will always showcase, with great hyperbole, the victims of the circumstance they wish to rectify. So say they, the obesity crisis places our national environment in a debacle we must be extricated from with great haste. Who can be martyred to quicken our resolve. Ah, yes, the children.

In September, the IOM released a report-“Local Government Actions to Prevent Childhood Obesity.” This report is meant as a guideline for local and state governments to interfere into every child and parent’s life. Since 16% of children are obese we must change the “environment” for the other 84%. This theory is hauntingly familiar. Moreover, we must correct, in the name of social justice, the racial and ethnic disparities that exist among these obese tots.

 In the journal Pediatrics ( 2009;123: e l 53-8), it notes that the exact same percentage of White and African-American children are overweight and obese with only a 1% increase in severe obesity in the African-American group. Given the population disparities between the two, the burden of obesity clearly rests with the White children. Hispanic children were more obese and severely obese by 4% and 2-3% respectively. This disparity may be amenable to real immigration reform.

I don’t like to see children suffer from obesity and it does not matter whose child it is. However, the word that is missing in the IOM report and all similar such literature is parent. Liberal governments supplant the rights of parents wherever they exist.

No one with the capacity for good judgment would deny that there is a problem of obesity in this country. It does not require the force of government and increases in taxes and loss of personal freedom to solve it. What’s a PTA?

So how will this work in the real world? We can look to the Arkansas Act 1220 of 2003.

The Arkansas Act 1220 was a piece of state legislation designed to fight childhood obesity. The Act included an unfunded mandate for schools to corral all the children, weigh them and calculate their Body Mass Index (BMI), a measure of obesity. The BMI was then reported to the children’s parents. Some parents raised objections on the basis of their child’s personal rights and fears that their child may suffer embarrassment or intimidation. Undaunted by the suggestion of the infringement on personal liberty and the demoralization of small children, the liberals courageously advanced. They changed to nutritious lunches, increased “vigorous” physical activity, mandated appropriate education on nutrition, convened an advisory board replete with diversity and then reported the little kinder’s BMI’s to their folks.

After three years of data, childhood obesity diminished .3%! Although it was a case of Twinkies away from abject failure, it was deemed an unequivocal success as it- “at least contributed to halting the progression” of childhood obesity. This is the same logic our current President uses as he saves American jobs, now with net losses measured in the millions. Perhaps more needs to be done to combat the out of control situation.

From the IOM brief on its report:

Local governments are experienced in promoting children’s health, as they historically have implemented

policies intended to ensure, among other things, that children are immunized or they wear helmets when riding a bike. In the same way, local governments—with jurisdiction over many aspects of land use, food marketing, community planning, transportation, health and nutrition programs, and other community

issues—are ideally positioned to promote behaviors that will help children and adolescents reach and maintain healthy weights. Promoting children’s healthy eating and activity will require the involvement of an array of government officials, including mayors and commissioners or other leaders of counties, cities, or townships. Many departments, including those responsible for public health, public works, transportation, parks and recreation, public safety, planning, economic development and housing will also need to be involved.

Good grief, it takes a village.

What will this all bring about? Taxes, increases in bureaucracy, out of control spending and all the other accoutrements of liberal social engineering.

Childhood obesity is a problem to be solved. Let’s use empathy and compassion. And if we are going to use tax dollars, let’s use them to help parents get educated. We don’t need an overhaul of our society to accomplish that.