Congressman Bares His Abs — Because of High Health Care Costs? Sure, Why Not

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The youngest member of Congress, 29-year-old Aaron Schock, represents Illinois. This month, he’s also representing on the cover of Men’s Health as “America’s Fittest Congressman.” And if the stomach he’s flashing is any indication, you’ll find no objections here.

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Matt Lauer interviewed him on Today, along with the editor of the magazine, and had his own take: “You have nothing to be ashamed of, with that photo, though are you a little nervous that this photo is going to come up at all the wrong times in your political career?” Schock, a Republican, said he knew there was some risk, but that it was worth it to draw attention to rising health care costs. And he expanded his argument: ab-flashing = attention to fitness = attention to health care = realization that bad personal choices lead to rising costs of health care = more people with great abs.

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Now, NewsFeed can’t say what everyone thinks of when they see a shirtless, toned man casually hanging on his free-weight gym set and displaying his biceps with a centerfold stare, but our first guess would probably not be HMOs. And it didn’t seem to be the first thing on Lauer’s mind either. He let Schock have his say and then got straight into the nitty gritty of how a man gets “those kind of results.” The answer: work out for an hour to two hours at 5:30 a.m., presumably every day. And every once in a while, you can have one scoop of ice cream or a slice of pizza.

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But then Lauer — sly dog! — circled back around to the core message, giving us the medicine after a spoonful of sugary ogling: More people should be fit, and if they were, health care would cost less. Everyone agreed. One can only imagine how much Sen. Scott Brown wishes he had thought of this when he flashed his own abs (and more) for Cosmo. And one can only hope we’ll soon see Schock bustin’ out his Dougie alongside anti-obesity crusader Michelle Obama.

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