The good news is that a new study is showing that Social Security crisis may be on the verge of saving itself. The bad news is that it’s because we’re slowly killing ourselves :

For the first time in two centuries, the current generation of children in America may have shorter life expectancies than their parents, according to a new report, which contends that the rapid rise in childhood obesity, if left unchecked, could shorten life spans by as much as five years.

The report, to be published Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine, says the prevalence and severity of obesity is so great, especially in children, that the associated diseases and complications – Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, kidney failure, cancer – are likely to strike people at younger and younger ages.
. . .
The report says the average life expectancy of today’s adults, roughly 77 years, is at least four to nine months shorter than it would be if there were no obesity. That means that obesity is already shortening average life spans by a greater rate than accidents, homicides and suicides combined, the authors say.
. . .
“We’re in the quiet before the storm,” Dr. Ludwig said. “It’s like what happens if suddenly a massive number of young children started chain smoking. At first you wouldn’t see much public health impact.” He added, “But years later it would translate into emphysema, heart disease and cancer.”
. . .
The report comes at a time when the country is embroiled in a debate over Social Security. While the report’s authors say they started their research long before the current debate, they write that “the U.S. population may be inadvertently saving Social Security by becoming more obese” and dying sooner, but that “this ‘benefit’ will occur at the expense of the economy in the form of lost productivity before citizens reach retirement and large increases in Medicare costs associated with obesity and its complications.”

With the severity and urgency of this problem, you can understand why Congress has devoted itself to the greatest threat to our nation’s health….steroids in baseball. For their next crusade, Congress plans to haul Hulk Hogan, the Ultimate Warrior, Rowdy Roddy Piper, and Jake The Snake before a panel to investigate whether or not wrestling is “fixed”. Don’t worry, they’ll get to the obesity problem….eventually.