ABC Praises Plan to Spend Highway Money on Obesity Fight

Bike paths or structurally-sound bridges. Which would you prefer?

ABC “World News with Charles Gibson” must prefer bike paths judging by its August 27 broadcast.

That evening “World News” promoted a report that “calls for a national strategy to reverse this [obesity] epidemic” including the use of federal highway money.

With bridges crumbling and traffic in metropolitan areas log-jammed, my guess is that taxpayers would rather see infrastructure money spent on crucial infrastructure.

Instead, “World News” touted a plan from Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) to fight obesity with mandates and bike paths.

“Require that localities build bike paths and sidewalks so it’s possible for people in communities to exercise more,” said TFAH executive director Jeff Levi to ABC.

Some have estimated that an infrastructure overhaul could cost up to $1.6 trillion. That would include crucial road, bridge, utility and air traffic control system updates. Despite that, the big government proponents at TFAH want to spend those taxpayer dollars on improving people’s body mass index.

“World News” failed to provide any estimate of the cost of these mandates and changes to federal and state programs—not to mention the cost of taking highway money away from bridges and roads. They also failed to provide any opposition such reallocation of resources.