President Obama gave a shout out to his wife, Michelle, at the State of the Union Address last week, pointing out that she will head up the latest nanny-state crisis for his administration: obesity.
This morning, in The Durham News section of the N&O, the findings of Durham’s State of the County report were outlined. The story tells us that “71 percent of county adults are obese or overweight.” (Sorry but I can find this story nowhere on the N&O’s Web site, so I can’t link.) Then there’s this:
Between 2001 and 2006, the rate remained around 58 percent for adults; rates for obesity and overweight among children 2 to 4 years old who received public assistance for nutritional risk remain above 2002 levels…”
That said to me that our government programs, designed to help people who aren’t getting enough to eat, are actually creating the very obesity problem they are meant to eradicate. I got some confirmation an hour later while doing my morning Web news grazing:
While spending on youth nutrition and wellness have ballooned, so have the kids. Nearly one-third of U.S. children are now overweight or obese. The feds spend $15 billion a year on nutrition in schools; the White House wants at least a $1 billion increase this coming fiscal year.
As Ronald Reagan reminded us many times, government is the problem, not the solution.
