As the Healthcare reform bill keeps slowly churning its way through congress, seems that in addition to it, there may be other small issues abound. The Obamacare reform continues to take a bureaucratical backseat to other nonsensical issues relating to healthcare.
According to U.S. News and World Reports there was a bill approved by the House in November and thus recently introduced into the Senate relating to obesity, more specifically, curbing the ever increasing and skyrocketing obesity rates in the United States. Basically, the bill is asking that all fast food and chain restaurants post calorie content statistics next to menu items. Citing that customers who viewed calorie statistics reportedly consumed slightly over 100 calories less per meal on average.
The Senate version of the bill earmarks $25 Million for efforts towards preventing childhood obesity, in addition to calorie content statistics. You got that right, $25 Million. To put things in perspective here, very recently a popular video game publisher Valve Software in conjunction with Electronic Arts launched an ad campaign for their newest venture, “Left 4 Dead 2”. Budget? $25 million dollars.
I don’t know if you heard that sound but its our tax money flying out the window in what is veiled as a futile attempt to call attention to childhood obesity, something that would take years of drawing attention to and hundreds of millions of dollars to potentially combat, (not just one months worth of marketing, a la the video game. But wait, isn’t there already another childhood obesity public awareness campaign going on? The Nation Football Leagues “NFL Play 60” encourages children to get out and commit to 60 minutes of exercise everyday. With everything else going on in Congress this is just another blip on the radar and a potential waste of money. Sounds like this bill was truly “Left 4 Dead 2”.
