Did I call it or what?

On Monday I blogged about how ObamaCare would necessarily lead to government assuming a nanny role to keep America fit and trim. And on Tuesday, HHS secretary Kathleen Sebelius made a speech in which she said that America spends twice as much on obesity as it does on cancer. In that speech, she also said:

"President Obama and I are committed to delivering a healthcare system that provides all Americans with better quality and lower costs, and fighting obesity is at the heart of these goals," Sebelius told the conference.

So that means the government is "committed" to "fighting obesity." How is the government going to do that? Ms. Sebelius didn't say, but the government has only one way of doing anything: force. It can dress up that force as "nudges in the right direction," but whether it's making Americans pay more for their sweet treats or cutting health benefits for those who don't lose enough weight, there's still a gun behind the "nudge." Force is force, even in a seemingly innocuous guise.

I do not want a government committed to fighting obesity. A government committed to fighting obesity is a government committed to violating individual rights -- because the only proper purpose of a government is to defend rights. Any time it tries to do more than that, it will necessarily curtail freedom of action -- in this case, the freedom to choose whatever food and drink one sees fit to consume, the freedom to exercise as much or as little as one wants, the freedom to gain or lose weight when one wants to do so. Freedom to act according to one's judgment -- that is what rights are, and what the government will destroy on its mission to create slim, healthy Americans.