Nanny, How I Love Yah, How I love Yah, My Dear Old Nanny

In yesterday's NY post Adam Brodsky pinpointed one of the most disturbing potential ingredients in a government run health care regime-the nannys are coming: "EAT your vegetables. Avoid sweets and fats. Never smoke. And do your calisthenics. Or be ready to pay a hefty tax. Ridiculous? Sure. But under ObamaCare, Americans may well find themselves moving quickly toward a world of just those kind of mandates."

The reason for this dangerous slippery slope lies with the fact that, if the government is paying for your care, it's gonna want to make sure that it can cut costs; and the best way to do this? Force you to live a healthier life: "As taxpayers start paying an ever-larger share of the nation's health bill (as they clearly will under the Dems' health reforms), pressure will mount for Uncle Sam to see that folks live healthy lives. They'll be two key rationales for broader sin taxes and other ways to control lifestyles:

* They promote "wellness."

* They make those living "unhealthy lives" bear the medical costs of their "reckless" behavior."

And what could be a better harbinger of this nightmare scenario? Why none other than the elevation of our friendly Doctor Frieden to the head of the CDC-and the war against obesity can't be far behind: "President Obama made his views clear in May when he tapped Frieden to run the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC then put out its own study, pegging the "cost of obesity" at $147 billion. Co-author Eric Finkelstein tied the issue directly to ObamaCare: "Unless you address obesity, you're never going to address rising health-care costs."

A government run health care system-or, "single payer system," in the president's own words-would be a license for health bureaucrats to butt their way into the most intimate areas of our personal lives; a progressive dream come true: "Lifestyle cops also trot out health-cost arguments to push trans-fats and fast-food bans, zoning changes to promote fruit and vegetable sales and more public recreation space. In April, then-city health czar Tom Frieden called for steep new taxes on soda -- which he claims would help curb obesity, and so lower costs tied to treating obesity-related diseases. Last month, an Urban Institute study urged higher levies "on sugar-sweetened beverages, cigarettes and alcohol." It claimed "disease prevention" -- "increased physical activity, improved nutrition and smoking cessation" to "reduce both diabetes and hypertension" -- saves bucks. A second UI study asserted that excess weight causes "over $200 billion in annual health-care spending, half . . . funded by the taxpayers."

Frightened yet? If not, consider who Obama has chosen as his science advisor, John Holdren-someone who sees development and population growth as ultimate evils; and advocates some scary stuff: "President Obama’s top science and technology advisor John P. Holdren co-authored a 1977 book in which he advocated the formation of a “planetary regime” that would use a “global police force” to enforce totalitarian measures of population control, including forced abortions, mass sterilization programs conducted via the food and water supply, as well as mandatory bodily implants that would prevent couples from having children."

And there are people worried about insurance companies? It may be that some of the scarier accusations about ObamaCare are not going to ever see the light of day-but why take the chance of allowing these health Nazis into the control room for 20% of the US economy? Stopping this take over now makes a lot of sense; the cost of doing it later may be, not only prohibitive, but futile as well.