We must not give up now. We must cleanse our party of all remnants of socialist and progressive ideas. For 35 years, we have struggled to make ourselves the minority party at all levels of government, and we are so close. Only a handful of state legislatures and governorships remain in Democratic hands, and we can eliminate most of those if we just keep on doing what we have been doing since 1980. Don't give up, my fellow Democrats. Keep nominating and electing candidates who sell out the public interest for campaign donations. Forward to irrelevance!

The notion that costs go down when people adopt healthier lifestyles is delusional. The healthy lifestyle folks are the ones that increasing health care expenses due to living longer.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/health/05iht-obese.1.9748884.html

Preventing obesity and smoking can save lives, but it does not save money, according to a new report.

It costs more to care for healthy people who live years longer, according to a Dutch study that counters the common perception that preventing obesity would save governments millions of dollars.

"It was a small surprise," said Pieter van Baal, an economist at the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment in the Netherlands, who led the study. "But it also makes sense. If you live longer, then you cost the health system more."

In a paper published online Monday in the Public Library of Science Medicine journal, Dutch researchers found that the health costs of thin and healthy people in adulthood are more expensive than those of either fat people or smokers.

Van Baal and colleagues create Preventing obesity and smoking can save lives, but it does not save money, according to a new report.