NYC Letter: We're From The Government -- Michelle Obama

Day 1,144 of CHOPE

The lady doth protest too much, methinks.

Queen Gertrude,
giving her opinion on playacting to bad effect
Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 2, 229

FIRST LADY: ANTI-OBESITY EFFORT
NOT ABOUT GOVERNMENT TELLING
'PEOPLE WHAT TO DO'

March 12, 2012 (The Hill) - In a new interview made available Monday, first lady Michelle Obama defended her “Let’s Move!” anti-obesity program against critics who call it a government intrusion.

"'Let’s Move!' is not about having government tell people what to do, because government doesn't have all the answers," Mrs. Obama said in an interview with Topanga Sena, age 11, a reporter for Scholastic News in Florida. "A problem that's this big and affects so many people requires everyone to step up. So we're asking everyone to step up."

Of course whether or not the government has a good answer, a bad answer, the wrong answer, a completely stupid answer, a flat-out lie, or no real answer at all, there is nothing that keeps it from telling you what to do nonetheless.

One of the accomplishments Obama celebrated with her second anniversary tour was the USDA’s new school meal regulations, implemented in January 2012, which seek to ensure public schools serve more fruits, vegetables and whole grains and less sodium, saturated fat and trans fats. According to the White House, the new mandatory standards for federally subsidized school lunch programs are the first major changes in school meal regulations in over 15 years. Republicans in Congress recently pushed back against the new regulations by attempting to drop them from a 2012 spending bill.

Sorry. For a minute we mistook mandatory standards for federally subsidized school lunch programs promulgated by the USDA, a government agency, as the government telling people what to do. [Pause.] Well, Mrs. Obama wouldn't be part of the government telling people what to do.

FIRST LADY UNVEILS TOUGHER NUTRITION
STANDARDS FOR SCHOOL MEALS

January 25, 2012 (The Hill) - First lady Michelle Obama on Wednesday unveiled tougher nutrition standards that school meals will have to meet starting this year.

... Thanks to the new guidelines, Jessica Donze Black of the Kids' Safe and Healthful Foods Project said, "children will see more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains on their cafeteria trays. Meals also will include more low-fat and nonfat dairy products, and less fat and sodium, and calorie levels will be appropriate for different age groups. Not only are these changes good for students, but they also give parents more assurance that schools support their efforts to provide healthy foods to their kids."

And more healthy foods means more Lean Beef Trimmings.

MORE OF THIS
Low Fat With The Ammonium Hydroxide Bite

At least Mrs. Obama is supporting parents' eating choices for their kids.

MICHELLE OBAMA ON DECIDING WHAT KIDS EAT:
'WE CAN’T JUST LEAVE IT UP TO THE PARENTS'

December 13, 2010 (CNS News) - Speaking at Monday's signing ceremony for the "Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act" -- a law that will subsidize and regulate what children eat before school, at lunch, after school, and during summer vacations in federally funded school-based feeding programs -- First Lady Michelle Obama said of deciding what American children should eat:

We can’t just leave it up to the parents.

The law for the first time gives the federal government the authority to regulate the food sold at local schools, including in vending machines.

... The law has been championed by the first lady as part of her campaign to end childhood obesity. Michelle Obama said that while it may seem ironic to be addressing childhood hunger and obesity at the same time, "it’s really just two sides of the same coin."

And that coin would be government parenting. Heads, the government tells you what to do. Tails, do what the government tells you.

Mrs. Obama doth protest too much, wethinks.

CHOPE.

We're from the government. We're here to help.