Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Donald Trump’s nominee to head the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has vowed to solve America’s “chronic health epidemic,” and, in so doing, “Make America Healthy Again.” Part of this national health glow-up involves bringing new levels of transparency to the federal government, Kennedy has argued, which is ironic because, during his confirmation this week, Kennedy made it as clear as mud what everybody should expect from his tenure at America’s most important health agency.
During Wednesday’s hearing, Kennedy refused to answer basic questions about a variety of subjects. Would he support bans on abortion medications, like mifepristone? Did he believe school shootings were caused by anti-depressants? Would he support making cuts to Medicaid? Did he support extending set-to-expire tax credits that have allowed low-income Americans access to healthcare? In all of these issues, Kennedy preferred equivocations to definitive answers.
There was one question, however, that Kennedy was able to answer with relative certainty: “Is healthcare a human right?” Bernie Sanders asked the nominee, at one point. The answer was simple: No. The HHS head nominee said that healthcare was not a human right in the same way that, say, free speech was a human right because, unlike free speech, healthcare costs money and money, as we all know, is the only thing that matters in America.
Kennedy was also treated to a grilling from Sanders about a website associated with an organization that Kennedy previously founded—the Children’s Health Defense—that sells anti-vax baby clothes. One of the issues at play during Kennedy’s hearing was whether he would continue to profit from his anti-vaccination “activism” during and after his public service. Kennedy noted that he had recently parted ways with the organization in preparation for his federal position. Sanders then switched tactics. “Are you supportive of these onesies?” Sanders hilariously yelled at Kennedy, as the flustered nominee sputtered evasively. Sanders’s onesie digression added some much-needed levity to the hearing, which was otherwise a grim spectacle of political maneuvering.
While his critics see him as a wacky ideologue, Kennedy’s supporters largely view him as a valiant subversive dedicated to fighting the monied forces that rule the food and healthcare industries. I submit, however, that Kennedy is actually neither of these things. Instead, I believe he is just another power-hungry twit with a penchant for grifterism who wants to hold office and is willing to do whatever is necessary to accomplish that goal.
Indeed, there is currently no evidence that Trump plans to do anything to “make America healthy again,” or to advance Kennedy’s bizarre health crusades, or to let him “go wild,” as he previously quipped. For instance, one of the areas of the food industry that RFK has often espoused concern for is seed oils, which Kennedy has claimed are harmful to Americans’ health. Trump recently picked Kailee Tkacz Buller to be the chief of staff at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Buller’s previous position was as the President and CEO of the National Oilseed Processors Association (NOPA). This is consistent with Trump’s first administration when he hired Buller and other lobbyists from the snack food and corn syrup industries to write Americans’ dietary guidelines and helm pivotal food agencies. Trump also famously likes snack foods, so it’s unclear why anyone would think he would be harsh on the companies responsible for developing them.
In general, Kennedy has revealed himself to be full-of-shit phony who will betray any and all of his most frequently espoused beliefs just for a chance to suckle at the power teat. Indeed, he somehow managed to spend over a decade lobbying on behalf of the environmental movement, only to turn around and endorse a political leader who has openly stated he wants to gut the EPA, politicize disaster relief funds, and open up public lands for drilling and development. Since being offered a top spot in Trump’s administration, he has also significantly backtracked on his vaccine skepticism, and reined in his more kooky talking points, in an apparent effort to skate through his current confirmation process and allow himself a smooth transition.
What became apparent at Kennedy’s hearing, however, isn’t just that the man is willing to compromise most of his beliefs for access to power. It also became apparent that he is more than willing to act as a surrogate for the true policymakers in the Trump administration: the billionaire-backed libertarian right that wants to smash the federal bureaucracy, dismantle public welfare programs, and return all the money and the power to the private sector. Kennedy openly criticized government-administered healthcare programs like Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act and seemed to imply that those programs should be discarded for purely market-based approaches to health services.
Kennedy also pimped Medicare Advantage, a partially privatized version of Medicare that has been widely criticized for being more difficult to use and providing less coverage. “We need to listen to what people prefer to be on,” Kennedy said, which is funny since there has been an outpouring of public anger against the Medicare Advantage plans, which have been characterized by patients as shitty and entrapping.
Still, this is all very much the line of the people who helped Trump get elected and who are currently busy writing his policies. Project 2025’s plan for HHS states a desire to push Americans into Medicare Advantage plans which, The Nation notes, would be “a boon to private insurance companies, since it essentially privatizes the wildly popular public program.” The project has also suggested instituting work requirements for Medicaid recipients, suggests the abolition of the Head Start program, would aggressively go after abortion access, and would, generally, work to undermine the public sector’s role in healthcare administration.