Set aside for a moment what you may think of the so-called federal jobs “stimulus” that Democrats in Congress passed in 2009.
Even if you believe some parts of the $862 billion stimulus were sensible, do you really have much confidence that a $7 million “stimulus” grant to help the city of Nashville fight obesity will work?
Suppose that money is going to be spent over the next year. Do you believe that a year from now, the residents of Nashville will be slimmer and healthier because Washington pumped $7 million into various anti-obesity campaigns in the city?
What’s more, do you think the grant will really create jobs, as the “stimulus” was originally supposed to do?
Given the disastrous track record of intrusive federal programs on everything from education to medical care, we have serious doubts that either better health or more jobs will be the result — in Nashville or in any of the nearly four dozen other cities nationwide that are getting similar “anti-obesity” funds.
Sadly, though, there is one thing we can know for sure: that the spending is entirely unconstitutional, since the federal government was never delegated any authority to look after matters such as U.S. citizens’ weight loss.