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In the Crossfire

Get off the couch, America!

Who's responsible for seeing to it that Americans are physically fit? Jake Steinfeld of Body by Jake and Steven Milloy from the CATO Institute get into the Crossfire with host Paul Begala over physical fitness in the United States.

MILLOY: I think exercise is great. I work out every day. I love it. I'm in good shape. And I plan to stay that way. And I think everybody should. But you know, it's my personal choice. I don't think we should mandate it publicly. I don't think the federal government should get involved in forcing people to exercise or making people feel guilty if they don't.

STEINFELD: I don't think it's about forcing. I think that if you can take ... what we have now, which we call the President's Council on Physical Fitness, which really isn't doing much these days...

MILLOY: It's a failure.

STEINFELD: And it isn't a failure. It just hasn't been paid attention to. And there's a way, though, that you can combine both the government and the private sector. Now I'm going to go back to our foundation because it's working. We've put now 25 of these Don't Quit! fitness centers in inner-city middle schools around the country.

... Eighty percent of the schools in our country today don't offer daily physical education classes. The obesity rate in this country is out, reading in the papers. Seventy-five percent of obese teens stay obese into adulthood. But the mindset being is we need a single voice.... a place that people can go to.

MILLOY: So many fitness crazes in this country in the '70s and the '80s and now. The fitness industry is booming. And you know, the message is not catching on.

STEINFELD: Because well, that's a whole other story, because I agree.

MILLOY: The government's efforts failed.

STEINFELD: I agree. I think that there needs to be watchdogs from the FTC, looking at some of the abdominal products out there.

MILLOY: We have PE in schools. It's not working.

STEINFELD: With those zappers that you can stick on the top of your head.

MILLOY: If the federal government does so little well, why do you want them to do more worse?

BEGALA: Well, one of the things the federal government does very well is pay the bills. Right? We have Medicare and we have Medicaid. And they are paying for the health habits of all Americans, including for example, oh say, the vice president of the United States, who has had four heart attacks, two heart surgeries, cancer, gout. He almost died eating a pomegranate. Wouldn't it have been better to spend $10 and get him a Body by Jake video. We wouldn't have to put $200,000 into surgery.

STEINFELD: Wait, hang on a second. What do I owe you for that? Hang on a second. Dial 1-800...

MILLOY: I mean, you guys want publicly financed health care. Then you complain when you have to pay for the health care of people. Well you know, this, you know, Dick Cheney's what you're going to have to pay for.