I hesitate to weigh in on this again, but now that the American Medical Association has, what choice do I have?
According to the doctors themselves, obesity is now a disease, not unlike alcoholism or even the diabetes it often leads to. Of course, the apologists and defenders have risen up against his classification – much as I'm sure they did back in 1956, when the association dubbed alcoholism as such. It took decades to gain widespread acceptance. Sadly, I think we're still on the front end of that now. We're Americans, dammit, and we're proud to be fat. It means we're rich (except, how do you explain Mexico passing us as the fattest in the world?) Besides, no one can tell us what to do (but I'll take that new "free" health insurance the feds are offering…thanks…).
Now we live in a country where obesity costs us more in health care costs than alcohol – as I've mentioned repeatedly here – so how is this remotely controversial?
Recommended For You
Oddly enough, its defenders cite genetics (like Gaga, they were born this way), which is odd since it's the opposite approach the alcohol defenders took back in the day, who claimed it was all about will power and choice. I'm no doctor (and haven't played one in years), but arguing genetics would seem to only play into the hands of the doctors, rather than offering a blanket excuse.
Finally, I saw online yesterday that one fat defender wrote, "If obesity is a disease, parents of fat children may not merely be silently judged as bad parents but also accused of neglect and child endangerment." I'm not so sure I have problem with that…
Speaking of overindulgence, last week was crazy for a holiday week, huh? Talk about your fireworks. Oh, and you did see that the administration tried to slip another one past us as we feasted on burgers and beers while we played with fire? Yeah, so delaying the employers mandate wasn't enough.
Now, we're going to rely on consumers to self-report when they sign up in the exchanges. Yeah, we can wait a year or two to actually start verifying that stuff. There's no way that can go wrong.
And couldn't you just see this administration take a similar approach to immigration reform? We'll just let them all self-report, or as Romney once intoned, self-deport.
Anyone else notice how the only parts of Obama's signature legislation – his real legacy – that we're delaying or killing altogether are the ones used to pay for the damn thing? This is the kind of accounting that got us into the housing crisis – and subsequently failed to get us out.
Say what you want about Obama's predecessor, and trust me, I have over the years, but at least George W. Bush stuck to his guns whether it was a war on terror or his own version of Medicare expansion. Obama, on the other hand, bet the farm – and his entire legacy – on health care reform, and now he's showing the kind of buyer's remorse we're all going to have to pay for.
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
