Here we go with the "Constitution" argument again. Tell you what - go check the statistics on the poverty rate for the elderly before Social Security came along. Go check on the literacy rate of Americans before public schools were implemented. Go check on what it was like to travel from one side of the nation to the other before Eisenhower implemented the interstate highway system (which was actually a Defense project).
In other words, the "good old days" weren't nearly as good or as free as you seem to believe.
You're a white male, right? That means that despite what you may personally believe, you have NEVER been at the very bottom of the social ladder in America. Which is probably why you seem to believe that the freedom to discriminate is somehow more American than freedom from discrimination.
Here's a clue - most of us far-left liberals are NOT vegan. Some are...but most aren't, including myself - come over here and I'll cook you up a ribeye that'll make your eyes water. So again, stop with the broad-brush accusations, willya?
That said, is obesity a problem in America? It's a freaking epidemic...and thanks to the heart disease and diabetes that are directly related to obesity, it's costing us hundreds of billions of dollars in lost productivity and disability...and
it's a bigger problem in the oh-so-conservative Deep South than anywhere else.
So how you gonna pay for the problems that are due in large part to the obesity (that is a greater problem in the Deep South than anywhere else)? Tell the people, "Tough luck, you're on your own - I'm not going to allow the government to help pay for your heart medication or your insulin"? Is that your solution?
It's the same thing as with cigarettes - the taxes go to help pay for the societial problems that are caused with overconsumption of that product.
Yeah, grow up. Get a clue that there is no such thing as a free lunch. If you want to live in a first-world nation, you have to put up with the big government, high effective taxes, and strong regulation that are required in order to reach and maintain first-world status...
...because those are the three factors that are present in EVERY first-world nation: big government, high effective taxes, and strong regulation.
America - love it or leave it.