Like a wonkish version of Richard Simmons, Gov. Rick Snyder was sure jazzed up during his State of the State address Wednesday, calling for new state initiatives to keep Michigan residents healthy and whip them into shape.
This health kick came as quite a surprise to many in the audience who expected the governor to call for a diet of a different kind – a fiscal one that includes deep spending cuts, state employee wage reductions, more bumps on the roads.
The governor not only did not specify any spending cuts to address a $1.8 billion deficit, he didn’t talk about how he would pay for his goal of encouraging annual physical checkups for all state residents.
That didn’t stop some groups, like Healthy Kids, Healthy Michigan, a coalition fighting childhood obesity, from gushing over Snyder’s proposal today,
“The coalition looks forward to working with the governor and members of the legislature to develop strong policies which will improve the health of Michigan, especially its youngest residents,” Katherine Knoll, chair of the Healthy Kids, Healthy Michigan steering committee said in a release.
That’s all well and good. Obesity, especially among the state’s children, remains a serious problem.
But the governor did run on a campaign that there was much obesity/fat in the state’s budget. Dr. Snyder, what diet will you prescribe for Michigan?
