George Bush made you fat

The Washington Post tries to lay out the case today that you’re fat, but it’s not your fault – it’s that damn George Bush in a front page article “Inertia at the Top“;

The problem at first was that the problem was ignored: For almost two decades, young people in the United States got fatter and fatter — ate more, sat more — and nobody seemed to notice. Not parents or schools, not medical groups or the government.

But since the alarm was finally sounded in the late 1990s, the problem has been the country’s reaction: a fragmented, inchoate response that critics say has suffered particularly from inadequate direction and dollars at the federal level.

“The sense of this as a national health priority just doesn’t come through,” said Jeffrey P. Koplan of Emory University, a former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and chairman of the Institute of Medicine’s 2004 study of childhood obesity. The top recommendation of that seminal report was for the government to convene a high-level, interdepartmental task force to guide a coordinated response. No such body has been assembled.

They accompany the article with pictures of a morbidly obese child who is ten years old and looks to be about 200 pounds and her approximately 300 pound mother. You know she’s all George Bush’s fault since he’s been the President for most of her life. And the Post does it’s best to lay her at GWB’s feet;

“The sense of this as a national health priority just doesn’t come through,” said Jeffrey P. Koplan of Emory University, a former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and chairman of the Institute of Medicine’s 2004 study of childhood obesity. The top recommendation of that seminal report was for the government to convene a high-level, interdepartmental task force to guide a coordinated response. No such body has been assembled.

Contrast that with the offensive mounted in European countries:

See, George Bush (and probably Dick Cheney, too) purposely ignored this important report released in 2004 and they aren’t caring enough to replicate the intrusive behavior of the European countries who arrest and fine their citizens for having opinions and drawing cartoons.

Then the Post writes a paragraph that argues with itself;

There’s no question that the U.S. epidemic won’t be reversed by federal fiat alone; responsibility lies also with individuals, the health community, corporations, local governments and others. Still, health experts insist that strong leadership from the top is crucial. They see the Bush administration falling short of expectations and few real champions in Congress.

The Federal government can’t do it alone – but they’d better copy those intrusive European governments and do it alone. There’s a hundred more critical things I could say about the article, but I’ll leave the rest to my readers.

I’m just glad there’s someone to blame for the 20 pounds I’ve put on from concentrating on this blog the last six months.

Category: Media, Society