The central goal of making America health again is crucial to solving a myriad of other problems, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said during a testy exchange with Democrat Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), who asked if the MAHA agenda was the only reason he was vying to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
“You keep citing the Trump administration, and you’re just going to follow what they say? Is that what you’re doing? You’re just a rubber stamp for them in this position?” the Democrat lawmaker asked.
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“So it doesn’t matter that you’re before us, it could be anybody coming before us, as long as they’re a rubber stamp for this administration and disregarding your beliefs and what you think?” she said, asking how Kennedy could address certain issues — that he, perhaps, disagrees with the administration on — moving forward.
“President Trump has asked me, end chronic disease epidemic and make America healthy again,” he said to applause.
“So is that the only reason why you’re at HHS? Is that the only reason why then you’re at the HHS, to address that one issue?” Masto snapped back, prompting a well-thought-out answer from Kennedy, who explained to the Democrat senator that all of the other issues will only worsen unless America gets to the root of the problem.
“Trump has asked me, because I’m in a unique position to end that, and that is what I’m doing,” he began.
“And if we don’t solve that problem, senator, all of the other disputes we have about who’s paying and whether it’s insurance companies, whether it’s providers, whether it’s HMOs, whether it’s patients or families, all of those are moving deck chairs around on the Titanic,” Kennedy said, stating plainly, “Our ship is sinking.”
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“Our 60 percent increase in Medicaid over the past four years is the biggest budget line now, and it’s growing faster than any other, and no other nation the world has what we have here. No other nation has a chronic disease,” he explained. “We have the highest chronic disease burden of any country in the world.”
Kennedy explained that during the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. had 16 percent of the coronavirus-related deaths despite only having 4.2 percent of the world’s population.
“We had a higher death count than any country in the world. And when CDC was asked why, they said it’s because Americans are the sickest people on Earth. The average person who died from COVID, American, had 3.8 chronic diseases,” he said, describing this as an “existential threat, economically, to our military, to our health, to our sense of well-being.”
“And it is a priority for President Trump, and that’s why he asked me to run the agency, and if I’m privileged to be confirmed, that’s exactly what I’ll do,” he added, prompting applause in the room.
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