Most people don't put it this way — they are either ruder about it or more polite — but Democrats have a reputation for being a pack of Big Government-loving control freaks.

And, as much as it pains me to say this, it is a reputation they frequently earn.

Allow me to demonstrate.

One of the items under consideration for inclusion in health care reform legislation is some sort of incentive for employers to create wellness programs for their employees.

Yeah? So?

Well, I have no real problem with the idea that encouraging wellness will ultimately cost us less than treating illness. I also know that the federal government has a long history of using employers to throw policy at employees.

And it's that long history that's bothering me.

I wonder when our nation's leaders will stop roping employers into partnering with its attempts to treat us all like a bunch of babies who can't be trusted to take care of ourselves?

Why do employers have to create wellness programs for their employees? Why can't people be responsible for their own wellness?

Instead of dumping the hassle of wellness programs onto employers, why doesn't Congress stop using agricultural policy to subsidize Twinkies (as Michael Pollan once put it) at the expense of cauliflower?

Why not subsidize small farmers who supply fresh produce to local and regional markets like schools, hospitals, restaurants, grocers, biofuel manufacturers and the like?

Why not require insurance companies to pay out on claims instead of finding excuses to wiggle out of it, leaving the patient high and dry and bankrupt after they've paid costly premiums for years in order to avoid exactly this?

Why not stop pharmaceuticals companies from convincing consumers that they don't have to make healthy lifestyle choices because there's a pill for everything?

You see, Democrats? You don't have to find new and annoying ways to get employers to babysit their employees. You have better things to do.

Each to his own craft.