Child Health Ignored by Congress

Our US Congress has once again taken the low road, trading children’s health for re-election dollars. Shame on them and us for allowing this to happen. Recently Congress blocked a well-researched proposal by the US Agriculture Department that would have provided a much-needed upgrade to our Country’s School Lunch Program. The new proposal added more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains to the lunch menu while reducing the amount of potatoes and salt served. It would also have redefined the concept of a vegetable serving, taking it away from a slice of pizza with a splash of red sauce. Unfortunately Congress acquiesced to big corporation special interest groups led by food companies producing frozen pizzas, the salt industry, and potato growers that spent over $5.6 Million to squash the proposal.

The truly sad part is we are no longer seeing what this is doing to our Country. There’s no other way of saying it; we are fat. Today close to 40% US adults have breached the level of ‘Obese’ causing soaring medical costs and shortening their lives. This number doesn’t even begin to count the number that are pre-obese or just plain ‘overweight’.  Focusing on our youth, there are well over 12,500,000 Obese Children, ages 2-19, in the US and the figures for just overweight children are beyond belief. Speculation is, this may be the first generation to not outlive their parents. All this causes a huge medical and financial toll on America. This year alone over 300,000 will die from Overweight and Obesity related diseases, and well over $147 Billion will be spent on medical procedures and treatment relating to these conditions.

So why did our elected Congress vote to keep American children sick and fat. The party line is that government currently pays a maximum of $2.94 for each lunch served. The changes would have increased the costs by about 14 cents per lunch. This is just too expensive they say. A rather short-sided opinion, when one considers we are spending over $2.2 Trillion on health care each year, and our population is sicker than ever. Do you think just possibly there could be some other more important issues in play?

Currently the average cost for winning a seat in the House is over $1 Million and a Senate race can be Several Million Dollars. In fact it is not unheard of to spend over $10 Million on a Congressional election. Now imagine what happens if you’ve angered a large Lobby Group by voting against one of their pet projects. You might as well pack your bags and move out of office. The sad fact is, it’s impossible to go up against a large political lobby group and survive, but the American people can always be bamboozled if enough money and spin is thrown at a campaign. Heck most voters just follow the policy line from their unions, or vote for the incumbent because they are afraid of change. Then too there are the subsidized crops that may be affected if our children were offered more real vegetables. These include wheat subsidized to $1.7 Billion, corn subsidized to $3.5 Billion, dairy subsidized to $74 Million. Even cheese is promoted by the Department of Agriculture where they created a successful marketing plan to sell pizzas loaded with 40% more cheese. Let’s face it, we have dug a pretty deep hole for our children’s health, and as long as the same people are in office why should we ever believe they will rise to do anything different.

If we are truly concerned about the declining future health in America, there are some hard choices we must take. It starts with changing our own family’s diet to eat more whole (unprocessed) foods and vegetables.

We next need to impose the extraordinary measure of ‘Two Term Limits’ on our Congress and local elected officials. As long as politicians are more concerned with being re-elected, and satiating their own personal needs, they will take the low road. Then we should revamp our election system spending to allow for only a specific number of prepaid public election campaign announcements prior to voting. These two measures will take the power away from special interest groups and big corporations, making our government available to all people. The resulting new diversity will strengthen and enhance our political system and our Country. Politicians may then focus on doing the right thing knowing that re-election is not an option and serving in office is a privilege. Finally if we are going to subsidize agriculture, let’s subsidize organic fruits and vegetables over wheat, corn, dairy, and yes, even tobacco. This will reduce the cost of these healthy foods making them more available to every American, thereby reducing our medical costs while building stronger bodies. To find proof of this claim, simply checkout the movie ‘Forks Over Knives’. You’ll be glad you did.

If you are happy, thrilled with what you see when you look around, then do nothing and stay on the same path. If you believe, as I do, that life could and should be better for all of us, then the time is now to let your voice be heard. If nothing else, let’s do it for our children.