Fred Thompson wants government out of preventive care game

By M&C US News Dec 5, 2007, 16:52 GMT

US presidential candidate Fred Thompson answers a question during the Presidential Debate at the Shingle Creek Resort in Orlando, Florida, USA, 21 October 2007. EPA/CHRIS LIVINGSTON

Fred Thompson wants the government to stay out of peoples personal business such as diet.

CNN reports that Thompson spoke in South Carolina near a typical southern spread of fried chicken, creamed corn and macaroni and cheese at Wade's Southern Cooking in Spartanburg,

Thompson dismissed the idea that preventative care and wellness education should be key components of a government's health care system.

"I'm telling you, I don’t think that it’s the primary responsibility of the federal government to tell you what to eat," Thompson said to applause when asked if his health care plan included any details on preventative care, a priority for Democratic candidates.

"The fact of the matter is we got an awful lot of knowledge,” said the former Tennesse senator. “Sometimes we don’t have a whole lot of will power, and I don’t know of any government program that's going to instill that."

Thompson's Republican outlook is one of personal responsibility first, which should trump any nanny state government imposed rules on personal matters.

"We shouldn’t be looking at the federal government in Washington first and working our way down, it ought to be just the other way around. With that, or whether you're talking about education, there's some things the federal government can't do," said Thompson.