Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was confirmed as secretary of Health and Human Services on Feb. 13, less than two months ago, and the barrage of name-calling and rebukes challenging his controversial nomination has followed the indefatigable attorney at every subsequent step. During his run for US president, this scion of America’s iconic political dynasty wisely eschewed the mainstream media and turned to the alternative platforms of Joe Rogan and others to reach the public. Now, his tour to talk to voters in Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico is similarly designed.
Kennedy on Tour
While former Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz has been clumsily waltzing around as if Election 2028 were underway, Kennedy is instead bringing his MAHA message directly to voters to counter claims he is gutting HHS and neglecting Americans’ health concerns.
Despite widespread left-wing teeth-gnashing alleging unfairness in cutting federal jobs and claims that his policies will seed vaccine hesitancy, Kennedy has addressed bird flu, measles outbreaks, and government inefficiencies. Complaints that he is hampering the sluggard HHS from achieving its supposed salvific purposes are adroitly blunted by the robust goals of his tri-state Southwest tour (April 7-9) to promote MAHA initiatives.
Kennedy rebuffs his critics, proclaiming that in his two months at HHS, he has discovered profound inefficiencies that have resulted in the agency's failure to reverse Americans’ health decline. He calls it a “paradox” that increased spending in the agency has accompanied deteriorating well-being and vows to reverse course by overhauling HHS: “The real overhaul is improving the health of the entire nation to make America healthy again.”
Reminiscent of DOGE's revelations, Kennedy stated:
“When I arrived, I found that over half of our employees don't even come to work. HHS has more than a hundred communications offices and more than 40 IT departments and dozens of procurement offices and nine HR departments.
“In many cases, they don't even talk to each other. They're mainly operating in silos. Sometimes these sub-agencies work at cross purposes with each other. … A few isolated divisions are neglecting public health altogether and seem only accountable to the industries that they're supposed to be regulating.”
An ‘AHA’ Moment
Kennedy is outlining a plan to streamline HHS to achieve the twin goals of cutting costs while “radically” improving Americans’ health and the agency's morale. Change is coming, with his intention “to eliminate an entire alphabet soup of departments and agencies while preserving their core functions by merging them into a new organization called the Administration for a Healthy America, or AHA.”
The secretary promises to slash $2 billion annually in AHA spending “while increasing the number of scientists and frontline health providers.” A “dramatic overhaul” is precisely what he vowed to achieve during contentious hearings in which Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) derided him. This is the opposite of mainstream media detractors who say he is cutting loyal employees from the agency and threatening to slash program benefits.
RFK Jr. is visiting health centers and the Navajo Nation (to discuss food sovereignty and the war on junk food), holding two press conferences and a “fireside chat.” He is focusing on the primacy of nutritious diets to counter chronic disease while assailing widespread bureaucratic ineptitude and graft.
Speaking above the din of naysayers to make his points directly to the American public, he brings his chip-on-the-shoulder confidence to the daunting task before him. While his program might not be viewed as healthy for entrenched bureaucrats and Big Pharma profit margins, Kennedy is using his position to Make America Healthy Again.
