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i'm suprised their even going to debate it, its such a violation of first amendment rights
The government can't go about just taking away peoples rights in that manner. While I’d agree with the morality of protecting individuals from themselves when it has become apparent that they no longer have any control, it can not happen this way.
On the other side of things, like the blogger who posted this you might ask
"What ever happened to freedom? I think that far too often we forget that freedom means not only the right to make good decisions, but the right to make bad ones as well. If an American citizen wants to eat steak for breakfast, lunch and dinner and die of a heart attack at 45 why shouldn’t he (or she) be free to do that? "
The answer to this is simple, if fatty rolls over with a heart attack 3 or 4 times before kicking the bucket, who is going to pick up the hospital bill? Now without making generalizations, you can assume that some obese people will have money flowing all about them, have insurance, and can pay for all of the medical treatment to allow them to have the freedom to make poor choices. But some of the obese will be living off welfare, on Medicare, living off of the rest of everyone's taxes. How is it justifiable for them to take the money from society only to spend it on cheeseburgers and fries for every meal, and then have a higher medical expense than the average weight American? I take your lunch money, and make you save me from choking on "your lunch" -- I just don't support that.
if it is the case that " [Blogger] I don't think there’s anybody out there who likes being fat, or wants to be fat, and certainly we all have a personal interest in being healthy. " then what is really being said here is that nobody would chose to be fat, and unhealthy if they could. So those that are obese need help in breaking the cycle they are trapped in. The government SHOULD do something to help these people, how to help them is another story.
I would refrain from being immensely appalled by this bill, it may seem overly paternalistic, but we all recognize obesity as a problem. I would hope that a majority of people agree with me in saying that it is the government’s job to ensure the safety of its people (this is why we have police, homeland security, armed forces, DEA, FBI, NAMBLA etc...(Now whether or not these agencies are helping or harming us right now is another topic)) But the point is the government should do something about this:
-- Between 1962 and the year 2000, the number of obese Americans grew from 13% to an alarming 31% of the population.
-- 63% of Americans are overweight with a Body Mass Index (BMI) in excess of 25.0.
-- 31% are obese with a BMI in excess of 30.0.
-- Childhood obesity in the United States has more than tripled in the past two decades.
-- According to the U.S. Surgeon General report obesity is responsible for 300,000 deaths every year.
