mr. speaker , as the gentleman pointed out , and he is so right , we need to move into the 21st century in regard to our health care system and modeling . 
just trying to come up with better drugs and the latest surgery techniques to treat complicated illness is not enough . 
we really need to focus on preventive care . 
you are talking about in the last few minutes , of course , your specialty , in talking about mental illness , and as it relates also to childhood obesity , and i could not help but think as i was listening to your discussion , and as you know , this week we just passed h.r. 554 . 
h.r. 554 is the personal responsibility in food consumption act of 2005 . 
this is a bill my colleagues are aware of the fact it would not allow someone to sue a fast food manufacturer because they have gorged themselves with a multiple number of big macs or any other kind of fast food , or sometimes what we refer to as junk food . 
it is not the fault of the food industry . 
i used a little analogy when i was talking about this on the floor yesterday in discussing the rule of my belt , which is a size 36 . 
that is , i hate to admit , the size of my waist , but if i wanted really out of blind pride to suggest that i had a 24-inch waist and i cinched that belt down a couple of notches , in doing so , i put pressure , compression on something referred to as the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve , it would result in a condition of numbness and lack of feeling on the anterior thigh . 
then should i go out and sue the belt company because they are at fault because i misused a product ? 
this is what this bill , of course , is all about , a common-sense type bill . 
parenthetically , mr. speaker , i also want to mention the gentleman from florida ( mr. keller ) xz4002120 , the author of the bill , our good friend and colleague , is actually in the hospital now and recovering hopefully from a fairly minor condition , but we want to pay tribute to him . 
i know he is proud that we passed this bill this week . 
the comment that i wanted to make is this issue of personal responsibility , and parents should have that personal responsibility obviously in the way they conduct themselves in regard to how they eat and a healthy diet and exercise , but even more importantly is the responsibility that they have to give a good example and instruction to their children . 
i think it is probably the worst form of child abuse to let these youngsters that at a very early age overeat and become obese . 
you have talked about the issue of poor mental image , self-image , and of course , i also see you talked about hollywood and , of course , this issue of there is no such thing as mental illness . 
i think probably they might predominate in some of those diseases , which we categorize as mental illness . 
but quite honestly , when a child goes to school and there is this emphasis on thinness and you see these youngsters wearing these britney spears ' jeans and that sort of thing , a child even a little bit overweight and certainly one that is significantly obese , of course they are going to have a poor image of themselves . 
they are going to withdraw , and they are going to become shy . 
it is very likely they are going to be picked on . 
how in the world can they grow and develop with a healthy self-image ? 
no wonder they end up needing to be counseled and treated by the gentleman from pennsylvania ( mr. murphy ) xz4002850 and other mental health care specialists . 
yes , unfortunately , some even go on to harm themselves and possibly even commit suicide . 
so i guess the most important thing that i would want to say as a physician member is that we need to prevent this . 
we need to make sure that parents get the message that they have an obligation , not just to take care of themselves , but first and foremost to take care of these precious children that they bring into the world . 
it is their responsibility to make sure that they are from the very beginning , when they start eating at the table , to make sure that they are healthy and stay healthy so you do not have to have them ending up in your office treating them for not only mental illness but also the many complications of obesity . 
you mentioned them . 
you mentioned diabetes , high blood pressure , so many things . 
and talk about the cost to this health care system of ours . 
we always talk about waste , fraud , and abuse in the medicare and the medicaid programs and wanting to eliminate that , and we are very diligent and will continue to be so . 
but this is almost a no-brainer . 
it is like we heard former speaker newt gingrich say to a group of us earlier today , and the gentleman from pennsylvania was a part of that as we had him come to speak to members of the house . 
we are not talking about low-hanging fruit here in regard to saving money and saving lives . 
we are talking about fruit that is lying on the ground sitting there rotting waiting for us to pick it up . 
so clearly that is what my message would be in regard to that . 
