I think, if I can be presumptuous and suggest that, Mr. Chairman, that we drive towards some number like that that gives Congress a quantifiable goal as a measure to potentially reduce costs in the name of health and well-being.

48 percent of the costs of obesity are born by government programs.

I want to point out that the gentlelady from Wyoming made some very important observations.

I am personally committed to exploring ways to encourage good nutrition and wellness.

Like many of my colleagues, I am very concerned about the rising rate of obesity among Americans.

We didn't fund that to go half way. We funded it as a project to go all the way to the Moon.

I happen to believe that it could be prevented, that a project that had that as an objective could, over a relatively short period of time, prevent the onset of the disease itself.

Unless it has not just authority, but funding, it is going to be exceptionally difficult to get the job done.

I hope that this hearing will produce results.

The dependency is connected to the public programs that we have in place, Medicare and Medicaid.

We are all getting--we are living longer.

I don't think you can do this without electronic health medical records.

There is a case here to change the way we approach Alzheimer's disease, and it is a fairly simple case that it is a different kind of disease.

If you believe it is project based, I am quite enthusiastic that the recommendations that we are making in this report will produce real results.

changing that oversight process is a very important thing to do.

I share Speaker Gingrich's evaluation of this, and I actually would slightly disagree with him and maybe substantially disagree with him.

It is not just I have lost one activity of daily living. I have to be supervised.

Here the term quagmire could apply. Some reject that term, but if that is not a quagmire, then what is?