Maine Democrats go to war on obesity

The Washington Times ^ | February 14, 2003 | Joyce Howard Price

[Indy Pendance]

Democratic state legislators in Maine this week are introducing the nation's "first comprehensive legislative package to combat obesity."

The bill would require nutrition labeling on menus in large chain restaurants, ban soft drinks and junk food in schools, promote transportation policies that encourage walking and create a commission to study the causes of obesity.

[Khepera]

Meet the new Taliban.

[upchuck]

The bill would require nutrition labeling on menus in large chain restaurants,...

This I can agree with.

... ban soft drinks and junk food in schools, ...

OK, as long as the replacement drinks aren't also loaded with sugar; 100% fruit juices as an example.

... promote transportation policies that encourage walking...

Another good idea. But they need to remember that people can't be forced to become fit. (Hint: bicycling burns more calories than walking.)

and create a commission to study the causes of obesity.

Far as I know, there's only one cause of obesity... taking in more calories than you expend causes you to expand :)

[wku man]

"The issue goes directly to the cost of health care," she said yesterday in a telephone interview. "Maine has a biennial budget of $5 billion, and we have a huge looming deficit of $1 billion. ... We estimate the obesity issue in Maine accounts for [costs] of $1 billion."

Okay, simple enough...end Socialized medicine.

Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!

[yendu bwam]

The Demautocracy at work - They won't relax until you are forced to know how many calories you're eating at every meal (and being chided for it), until cars are banned, until your kids know every detail of perverted sexual acts, until you can't smoke a cigarette in your own home, until home schoolers are regulated (though they provide consistently better results), until every judge agrees that mothers should be able to kill their own unborn and partially born children (without the father's say), until you have to pay $300 to have someone figure out how to do your tax returns, and until you're forced to feel guilty for attacking Saddam Hussein. The Democratic Party = tyranny

[Capt. Tom]

First they came for the smokers and I said nothing.....Tom

[cadillac cowboy]

"The bill would require nutrition labeling on menus in large chain ......."

I'd rather see politicians forced to wear some kind of integrity rating.....tattooed on their forehead maybe.

[lodwick]

Maine state Sen. Lynn Bromley, South PortlandDemocrat , also a sponsor of the measure, said, "If you give people information, they make the right choices."

What a jackass statement.

bttt