Steven Van Zandt, the guitarist for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, came down strongly on ObamaCare Thursday.
In a video interview, Van Zandt said Barack Obama's signature legislation is "almost worthless."
Van Zandt believes we're having the wrong conversation in this country.
"We waste two years talking about healthcare, and I’m like, why are we talking about healthcare when we should be talking about heath?" he said.
"I spend six months a year in Norway," offered Van Zandt. "Healthcare’s free in Norway because everybody’s healthy."
"You can’t even discuss healthcare in a logical way," he continued. "And I know his thing is going to help a few people, and that’s nice."
Van Zandt mentioned that the parts of ObamaCare concerning preexisting conditions and folks being able to stay on their parents' insurance till the age of 26 (he actually said 25) were "nice things."
"But mostly it’s almost worthless," he said, "because we need to be talking about health. We have two out of three people obese in this country."
What's interesting is Van Zandt is certainly not the picture of health himself, but that didn't stop him from pointing fingers.
"We’re a little bit lazy, we don’t exercise enough," he correctly stated. "Maybe we eat too much, but that’s not really the reason."
What does Van Zandt think is really making our nation fat?
"The reason is the preservatives and additives and steroids, all this gluten and every other junk that’s in our food. We take care of that and then we start talking about healthcare. Let’s get this under control. Let’s get our health under control."
I'm not sure gluten is the issue, but certainly processed foods are part of the problem.
I'm surprised he didn't mention soft drinks which, quite frankly, I don't understand how any intelligent person can consume on a regular basis.
But Van Zandt was largely correct: so much of the problem with American healthcare is the American diet and the poor fitness regimes practiced by most of the population.
Yet he stopped short of exposing the dirty little secret: much of our economy is dependent on overeating and poor fitness.
Before you scoff,think about how many people would be unemployed if everyone in this country ate properly and was in shape.
And that's why we can't have this conversation.
As an aside, this isn't the first time Van Zandt was critical of Obama despite Springsteen being a huge supporter.
Last year he called the President a "eunuch."
