[dellinger63]

As brought up in another thread the odds of a child being shot and killed in a school shooting in a given year is 1 in 15 million. I was interested in the odds of being shot and killed by a firearm, regardless of circumstance, over a lifetime and found those odds according to the National Safety Council to be surprisingly low IMO at 1 in 340.

At the top of the list of causes of death at 1 in 7 is a tie between heart disease and cancer. Since the chance of dying from either of the top two is 48 times greater that of dying by a firearm, I suggest we institute a pseudo anti-gun plan complete with a registration process for obese individuals and call it the Christie Plan. With the implementation of Obamacare coupled with the ever present Medicare/Caid and SS disability, all taxpayers have an interest in the health of the country.

We tax cigarettes (in Chicago $7.17 a pack) in an attempt to prevent cancer, why not also tax obesity in an attempt to prevent heart disease?

35.9% of the U.S. population over the age of 20 is obese. That equates to roughly 90 million. By taxing each of the registered obese $1,000 dollars per year it would equate to $90 billion in new tax revenues, offsetting, in part, the cost of heart disease. That number would hopefully decrease year after year but curing the obesity problem, not raising tax revenues is the intent of the Christie Plan. For those considering the plan is too extreme consider that $1,000 a year tax comes to just $2.73 a day or the tax on 8 cigarettes.

The US Center of Disease Control places the cost of heart disease per year at $108.9 billion. By lowering the obesity rate we can certainly lower the $108.9 billion number making it a win (individual health), win (lowering cost) situation without even flirting with violating the Constitution, the predicament gun laws always seem to face.

In addition, ancillary benefits the Plan would introduce include a decreased enrollment in Medicare/Medicaid and SS disability, a more able bodied work force, parents more concerned with obesity, less diabetes and overall a fitter, happier country.

Of course there will be people that just pay the $1,000 and continue gorging just as there are still smokers. But that $1,000 will more fairly offset the cost of heart disease incurred by the 64.1% who are not obese.