Quote Originally Posted by drone View Post
What, you think I was kidding with this?

If we are going to go socialist on the health care in this country, we may as well go all out. Yearly physicals/check-ups, which includes a certified fitness test. If you are rich and don't care, let yourself go. If you want to keep a few hundred bucks from Uncle Sam, make sure you (and your kids) don't get into the obese category. Pushups, situps, pullups, timed runs, etc. Think old-school Presidential Physical Fitness Test, but with money on the line.

Putting a tax on fatty/sugary foods will not solve the problem and is inherently unfair. Some people stay in shape regardless of their food choices. Creating a tax scheme for "unhealthy" foods would be a mess, and would be rife for abuse by special interests.
The issue i see with the proposed plan would be logistics. When do people take this test? Do they all take it near tax time? Do we have enough registered doctors for this purpose? What benchmarks are being used as "healthy"? Weight, BMI, cholesterol levels, blood sugar, how fast/long you can run?

Frankly, the tax seems more reasonable, in my opinion. Plus, it is more budget friendly, can be used to help pay for health care 'reform'(whatever that ends up being ), and should theoretically bend demand for unhealthy foods down. And for all the complaints I hear about how expensive healthy food is, when I go to the grocery store, I frankly fail to see how exactly it is unreasonably expensive. Keeping in mind, how much you eat is just as, if not more, important than what you eat.