Be a Patriot - Go on a Diet!

In tonight's Presidential news conference, President Obama emphasized over and over that despite claims that large budget deficits amount to "generational theft," we need to make investments in energy, education, and especially health care reform, because that's the only way to break us out of our long-term, structural deficits. If we don't make investments in these areas, our economy will suffer, and that stream of debt will not have any long-term upshot to look forward to.

This got me to thinking: Since such a large share of the federal deficit comes from our Medicare and Medicaid shortfalls, and those shortfalls are the result of Americans continuing to get more fat, less fit, more stressed, and less balanced in their diets, then isn't every choice we make that leads to avoidable health problems the real cause of "generational theft"? Isn't this aspect of government debt just a symptom of the actual crime, which comes out of the American mind-set that someone else should have to pay for the consequences of careless living? That "someone else" is usually the health insurance industry, which includes the government, and by proxy the tax-payers that our children will eventually become.

So if you don't want our children to get stuck with their parents' debt, there is something you can do - start taking better care of your own health. Exercise for a few minutes every day. Make a point of eating fresh fruits and vegetables. Reach out to friends and family when you are stressed. Pick up a hobby that enriches your life. Do anything you can to change the direction your health is going in, and when you are ready, make another change. Then another. Before you know it, you'll not only feel better, but you'll also save your children literally thousands of dollars over the coming years.

Each one of us that makes this choice will reduce the federal deficit a little bit at a time, and eventually, if enough people take this kind of personal responsibility, we won't have to rely on deficit spending just to get through the day.