Is overeating any business of the government?

Here is a wonderful article by Jacob Sullum in which he rakes the astoundingly irritating Paul Krugman for writing that the government needs to do something about the “crisis” of obesity in the US.

The state of my health is none of Paul Krugman’s business, nor his health any of mine. No unit of government has any reason to bother itself with the eating habits of either of us, or anyone else. Coercion, which is the only tool in the government’s box, is both inappropriate and ineffective when it comes to peaceful individual choices.

To leftists, however, everything is an excuse for more governmental meddling — unless, of course, it’s something they think is “fundamental.”