Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faced critics head-on in his opening statement before the United States Senate Committee on Finance, addressing claims that he is “anti-vaccine” and more.
Kennedy, President Donald Trump’s nominee for Health and Human Services Secretary, said during his opening statement that health care costs are so high because of “chronic disease,” offering a statistic from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealing that “90 percent of health care spending goes toward managing chronic disease, which hits lower income Americans the hardest.”
“The President’s pledge is not to make some Americans happy again, healthy again, but to make all of our people healthy again. There is no single culprit in chronic disease, much as I have criticized certain industries and agencies President Trump and I understand that most of their scientists and experts genuinely care about American health, therefore, we will bring together all stakeholders in pursuit of this unifying goal,” he said before addressing reports that he is “anti-vaccine.”
This prompted a shout from a protester who appeared to yell, “You are!”
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Kennedy addressed that claim head-on, noting that he is simply “pro-safety.”
“I worked for years to raise awareness about the mercury and toxic chemicals in fish, and nobody called me anti-fish. And I believe that my that vaccines play a critical role in healthcare. All of my kids are vaccinated. I’ve written many books on vaccines. My first book in 2014, a first line of it is, I am not anti-vaccine, and the last line is, I am not anti-vaccine,” he said, explaining that he is not the “enemy of food producers,” either, placing an emphasis on the importance of American farms.
“American farms are the bedrock of our culture, of our politics, of our national security. I was a kid, and I spent my summer working on ranches. I went to work with our farmers. I want to work with our farmers and food producers. Remove burdens regulations and unleash American ingenuity. MAHA simply cannot succeed without a partnership, a full partnership of American farmers,” he continued.
Ultimately, Kennedy acknowledged that he has “often disturbed the status quo by asking uncomfortable questions.”
“Well, I’m not going to apologize for that. We have massive health problems in this country that we must face honestly, and the first thing I’ve done every morning for the past 20 years is to get on my knees and pray to God that he would put me in a position to end the chronic disease epidemic and to help America’s children,” he revealed, expressing gratitude for President Trump for putting him in the position to be able to help on this critical front.
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