American Idiot

One of the reasons we have Medicare and Medicaid in this country is that we believe, or at least we used to believe, that older Americans and the poor should have access to health care. It's expensive, but basic human decency would seem to require it. Now, there are two things that drive the costs of these programs sky high: smoking and obesity. They aren't the only two, but they account for a huge amount of illness in this country and the costs for treatment are sky high. Just one small example: in 2003 American taxpayers paid approximately $37 billion in health care costs related to obesity, and taxpayers also pay a large portion of the $100 billion in annual health care costs related to smoking. So, you would think that Michelle Obama's efforts to encourage healthier lifestyles and combat obesity would be something all Americans could rally around. And you would be wrong.

America the beautiful.

Congresswoman and presidential hopeful Michelle Bachmann of Minnesota, the leader of the fruitcake wing of the Republican Party, a faction that seems to be swallowing the rest of the party whole, has gone on the attack against the First Lady, accusing her of promoting a "nanny state." (To be fair, Bachmann also objects to the First Lady's efforts to promote breast feeding, but it seems to crankyjewishguy [CJG] that if you are breastfeeding you have less of an incentive for a nanny since you need to be around a lot. But there's another connection: studies show breastfed children are less likely to become obese.) Bachmann is also one of those calling for reducing government spending (other than defense, of course) to about $84 a year. But she is also a deep believer in the "sanctity of life," and is one of those Republican scaremongers who told us, falsely, that Obama's health care reform plan included government death panels that would cut lives short. You see, if you are an obese smoker on terminal life support, Bachmann and her ilk would do what they did during the Terri Schiavo fiasco: get Congress involved in one patient's care by passing legislation specific to that one patient that sought to prevent the poor woman's husband from letting her die peacefully after fifteen years on life support. Can you imagine what that cost? (Schiavo's illness was not related to smoking or obesity; CJG is just making a point.) Oh, and did CJG mention these are the people who want government out of our lives?

If Bachmann wants to cut spending, you'd think she'd be all in favor of programs that discourage smoking and obesity, even if the government spends money on them, because they are a heck of a lot cheaper than the costs of treating smokers and the obese. It seems a fair bargain to CJG that if we provide health care to the elderly and the poor because we believe in "life," then we should do what we can to reduce the costs by promoting healthy life styles. Isn't that a family value? But you could spend the rest of your life arguing with an ignoramus like Bachmann and all it's going to do is raise your blood pressure and increase the cost of your own medical care.

It used to be that the good works of First Ladies were uncontroversial: Lady Bird Johnson promoted the beautification of America's highways; Laura Bush promoted literacy (apparently she failed in Bachmann's case); and Betty Ford helped us understand drug and alcohol dependancy. But in their never-ending attempts to cast the Obamas as "foreign" and "other" and "socialists," even efforts to encourage public health and thus reduce health care costs borne by taxpayers are suspect to Bachmann and the far right. If Michelle Obama's cause was preservation of Mount Rushmore you can be sure Bachmann and her crowd would vote the funds needed to blow it up. In fact, CJG is surprised Bachmann hasn't changed her first name. He bets she just hates having the same first name as the First Lady who, by the way, has more class and more brains in her right pinky than a hundred Michelle Bachmanns.

If Michelle Obama's cause was preservation of Mt. Rushmore,
Republicans would vote the funds to blow it up.