This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Mitt Romney was recently in Israel, praising its socialized health care system. So it's interesting that Israel is joining governments like Finland, Denmark, France and Austria in trying to reduce obesity and encourage healthy eating. Israel is planning a special tax on unhealthy foods and special labeling of healthy foods.

Romney likes Israel's healthy and cost-efficient results — but he doesn't support its government regulatory methods of insurance mandates, aggressively regulated nonprofit providers, and now, a fat tax and food warning labels.

Ironically, for being a businessman focused on results, Romney the politician now isn't willing to do what's necessary to get results in health and its costs (he was when he was Massachusetts' governor).

It's the same when it comes to energy. Romney praises the polluting but big-donating coal industry, and criticizes tax incentives for pollution-free wind power.

Romney isn't so much for a government "for the people" as he is for a government for big insurers, big energy and big food. He's taken Deep Throat's clue in the movie "All the President's Men" — "follow the money" — as a policy mantra, though it was originally a strategy to uncover malfeasance.

Thomas Decker

Salt Lake City