The new guy heading up the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is an avowed anti-vaxxer with a spray tan who, among other things, doesn’t know the basics of how Medicare and Medicaid work.
This is what 49.5 percent of America voted for?
“Our plans are radical transparency and returning gold standard science to NIH, the FDA and CDC, and ending the corporate capture of those agencies,” Kennedy said after being sworn in on Thursday, following the 52-48 vote in the U.S. Senate to confirm his nomination, which was the back end of the quid pro quo he agreed to with Donald Trump back in the summer.
RFK Jr., you may remember, dropped out of the presidential race as his polling numbers began to tank and threw his dwindling base of support to Trump, in exchange for Trump promising to put the conflicted Kennedy family scion in charge of the federal government’s healthcare sector.
ICYMI
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Trump ended up winning the popular vote by a point and a half, and got over the top in the Electoral College by picking up narrow wins in the battleground states that would have been within the margins that Kennedy had been picking up before he stepped aside.
Trump 2.0 has already been taking direct aim at the foundation of the $2 trillion public/private healthcare system, pledging to cut the HHS workforce, slash funding for medical research and taking a large cache of public health information offline.
MAGA Republicans in Congress, meanwhile, are working toward finding $200 billion a year in funding cuts that would put Medicaid and food assistance programs on the chopping block for many Americans.
Kennedy’s solution is to promote better eating and more exercise, no doubt good ideas that should underpin a healthy lifestyle – but why that couldn’t be done in concert with ongoing federal healthcare, food assistance and research programs seems a fair question.
“Certain things about Mr. Kennedy, I like – the focus on chronic illnesses, the focus on healthy eating, but that is far more outweighed by the fact of his kind of anti-science approach on vaccines and medical research,” said U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., who was a “no” vote on Kennedy’s confirmation.
“This is not a way to keep Americans safe. This is not a way to make sure that we protect women’s reproductive health care needs. This is not a way for America to continue to be the leader in research and development,” Warner told reporters on a conference call after the Senate vote.
“By making these cuts, we are basically ceding the ground to China to take advantage. China is very, very active in medical research, very active in genetic research, and this is both short sighted from a health care standpoint, it’s also short sighted from a national security standpoint,” Warner said.
U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., was also a “no” on the RFK Jr. nomination, and in a separate conference call after the vote, he blistered Kennedy for his wild 9/11 conspiracy theories.
“His take on 9/11 is, I can’t tell the difference between what a conspiracy theory is and what it isn’t. No expression of sympathy for the victims, no expression of outrage for the attackers. I can’t tell the difference between what is a conspiracy theory and what isn’t,” Kaine said. “As a Virginian who knows a lot of folks whose lives were forever changed that day and in the years since, the notion that we would have an HHS secretary who was admitted he can’t tell the difference between conspiracy theories and non-conspiracy theories, and proudly proclaims that he won’t take signs on 9/11, this has to be one of the worst appointees ever confirmed by the United States Senate in the history of this body.”
Fourth District Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan didn’t get a vote on the nomination, as a member of the U.S. House, but we heard from McClellan after the Senate had cast its lot, and put RFK Jr. in charge of the healthcare system, god save us all.
“As a mother to two young children, I have serious concerns that the Trump administration has placed our nation’s largest public health agency in the hands of an outspoken anti-vaxxer and misinformation superspreader who peddles racist tropes about Black people needing different vaccination schedules because they have different immune systems,” McClellan said.
“Today, Senate Republicans ignored his alarming track record and confirmed Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a decision that will erode public trust in our health systems and ripple into future generations,” McClellan said. “The well-being of all Americans will suffer because of RFK Jr., and his embrace of harmful, anti-science theories will have a particularly detrimental impact on communities that already face disproportionate barriers to care.
“The Secretary of Health and Human Services should be a leader who will fight to expand healthcare access, address existing disparities, and strengthen trust in science. Mr. Kennedy is not that person,” McClellan said.
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Chris Graham
