RFK Jr. Fraying: Berates Senator Instead Of Answering Simple Budget Cut Questions
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 competence. 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
Comments on “RFK Jr. Fraying: Berates Senator Instead Of Answering Simple Budget Cut Questions”
Nah.
This is his true colors coming out. The guy is a sexist pos and a pathetic bully like all right wingers.
You have to remember that, like many other Trump acolytes, he doesn’t give a fuck about anything but performing for his master. The audience-of-one-idiot approach will let RFK keep his job so long as said idiot thinks RFK is doing, to quote a former Republican president, “a heck of a job”. But when RFK becomes a liability (which will happen sooner rather than later), Trump will dump RFK for someone who is equally as stupid but far less of a political liability.
Re:
We need suave and charming evil morons, fast!
Re:
I question this bit. While I admit find someone more politically liable that RFK Jr. seems a daunting task to me, Trump being able to make any such comparisons for candidates seems equally implausible.
Republicans have no good arguments to refute the other side so they simply attack the person instead. And they aren’t even good at that.
But it’s loud and it plays well on Fox, and the base eat up because they don’t have to think through any of it at all. Volume makes it right.
I’m not certain (sometimes apparent glitches can be deliberate), but I think that “competance” should be “competence”, thanks.
I just see a man thinking he’s big trying to intimidate people into silence. It’s probably worked most of his life. Everything about him screams “Abuser!”
Chemtrail problem
I am fairly sure he can achieve this. Solving a non-existent problem should be easy, he just has to declare it solved.
Re: Chemtrails
Since he doesn’t understand how airline wings cause vapor trails, he must assume it is a conspiracy.
He can never declare the natural phenomenon “solved” without grounding all of the airplanes, everywhere, forever.
Re: Re:
TBH, I haven’t researched that one either, but I don’t feel any need to make up bullshit about it.
“My question was about the budget.”
I’m tired of living in an endless succession of Simpsons jokes.
Those blasted mind-controlling ninjas...
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.”
Someone really needs to find those ninjas with hypnosis powers that Biden apparently employs to force republicans to do things that they otherwise wouldn’t have done, I mean just look at all the problems Biden’s been responsible for that only popped up after he was out of office!
Reflections on watching more of the hearing...
YouTube video pvLqcR5RMz4 has the entire hearing… all two hours of it. The exchange with Sen. Murray starts about half-way through (1:05:20).
I’m interested in the relationship of (DOGE-inspired?) very-fast cutbacks, done illegally (i.e. budgets/money were agreed by Congress and set aside for FY 2024-5), and yet the cutbacks drastically preempt the Budget Hearings: The video shows a lot of Congresspeople being concerned about the cart being put before the horse.
Are budget hearings going to be a major battleground for the Executive versus the Legislature? If so, then the relevant Secretaries of Departments may be in for an interesting ride, presumably over the next month.
The worm may have died but the alien insects have removed what remains of his brain and left the four or so cells of craziness in place.