from the unhealthy-debate dept
I would love to say that it feels like the era of RFK Jr. as HHS Secretary is starting to come to an end, but that would be optimistic in the extreme. Still, I think we’re starting to see the edges fray a bit and it’s no surprise as to why. Kennedy has overseen budget, grant, and staffing cuts at HHS in the midst of a measles outbreak that is threatening America’s elimination status for the disease, has prattled on about having the source of autism identified by late summer and solving America’s chemtrail problem, and managed to document himself on social media spending his downtime taking his grandchildren to bodysurf in a stream of sewage.
In the days following the shitwater incident, Kennedy has appeared several times before Congress. Notably, he informed Congress last week, all while being incapable of advocating for vaccination against all kinds of diseases including measles, that nobody should be taking medical advice from him. It’s an interesting position to take as the person in charge of America’s healthcare system, frankly, but points to House Slytherin for being correct, I suppose.
But it’s also a strange stance to take only to then turn around and berate a sitting senior Senator for not fixing all of America’s healthcare concerns in answer to a question about the recent budget cuts at HHS.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. started an angry rant during a hearing Tuesday, prompting a Republican senator to urge him to “hold back.”
Kennedy’s outburst came after Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) slammed drastic staffing and funding cuts at his department, and asked whose decision it was to withhold certain childcare and development funds.
Kennedy began by criticizing former President Joe Biden’s administration, and when Murray tried to get him back on track, he snapped back: “You know what, you’ve made an accusation and I’m going to answer it.”
He got to the answer to Senator Murray’s actual question after being admonished by Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito to calm the hell down and answer Senator Murray’s question. Here’s how the whole thing went down.
This, I would argue, is the behavior of a man feeling the pressure. Whether any of that pressure is being generated internally from the administration is, unfortunately, an open question, but Kennedy is clearly rattled. When the question was initially posed, prior to Kennedy’s accusations about a single Senator being to blame for chronic disease and whatever else in America’s healthcare system, Kennedy launched into a screed about what the Biden administration did or did not do for healthcare. As a reminder, the question posed was who ordered the budget and staffing cuts at HHS. The non-answer pivot to talking about Biden instead is a familiar playbook to anyone who has watched the Trump administration operate.
In other words, it seems Kennedy really is all MAGA now, if there was any question of that previously.
And, may wonders never cease, it seems the concerns about the HHS cuts are bipartisan.
Capito herself addressed recent cuts at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, which oversees workplace safety, saying: “I support the President’s vision to right-size our government, but as you and I have discussed, I don’t think eliminating NIOSH programs will accomplish that goal.”
Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) said that cutting mining research programs hosted by NIOSH, “undermines our ability to meet national security goals tied to mineral independence and supply chain resilience.”
It would be charitable at this point to suggest that the man is simply unwell. Anything else is a remark purely on his competance. Either way, this isn’t the person to lead HHS.
Filed Under: health and human services, hhs, niosh, patty murray, rfk jr., shelley moore capito
