Sen. Ted Cruz offered a full-throated endorsement to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
“I am going to vote for Bobby Kennedy, because I think he’s a change agent who has the courage to take on some of the corruption at HHS,” in a statement Friday.
“Bobby Kennedy is going to shake up the cronyism that has characterized HHS,” Cruz added. “Additionally, a lot of Americans are concerned about the rise in chronic illness, and I think Bobby Kennedy is a very good person to take that on.”
Cronyism involves the promotion or appointment of friends and associates to positions of authority, without regard for their qualifications. It refers to a form of corruption in which bureaucrats favor their own interests above the interests of the people.
Kennedy testified before the Senate Finance Committee and the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.
He noted that many American children and adults are taking mental health medications, such as Adderall, benzodiazepines (like Xanax), and SSRIs (like Prozac), contending that the United States has an overmedication problem. “Fifteen percent of American youth are now on Adderall or some other [attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder] medications, even higher percentages are on SSRIs and benzos,” Kennedy said at the hearing.
Kennedy said he didn’t want to “take food away from anybody,” noting Trump’s consumption of Diet Coke and McDonald’s menu items. Yet he insisted that Americans should “know what the impacts are on your family and on your health.” He further stressed that federal health programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program—better known as food stamps—should not be subsidizing sugary soft drinks.
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Kennedy has led a “Make America Healthy Again” movement, merging his concerns about what is making Americans sick with Trump’s ambition to “Make America Great Again.”
In his Aug. 23 speech endorsing Trump, RFK Jr. focused on the “chronic disease epidemic”—including ever-higher rates, even among children, of Type II diabetes and obesity, and of Alzheimer’s, which some now refer to as “Type III diabetes.”
He condemned “insidious corruption” at the federal agencies intended to help Americans live healthy lives: the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, HHS, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Kennedy claimed that an unholy alliance of industries, corporate media, government agencies, and nonprofits has been undermining Americans’ ability to be healthy. He claimed this cartel has gaslit the public by declaring war on dietary fats, promoting carbohydrates in the so-called food pyramid, and subsidizing high-calorie crops with less nutritional value.
These interventions have promoted a food environment that leaves Americans fatter, sicker, and less nourished of the nutrients they truly need, RFK Jr. maintained.
Kennedy pledged to uphold conscience protections if confirmed.
To Republicans concerned about Kennedy’s long-held liberal policy views, during the first hearing, RFK explicitly stated, "I serve at the pleasure of the President. I'm going to implement his policies," indicating his intention to align with Trump's agenda, focusing solely on making America healthy again, delivering absolute transparency, and rooting out corruption.
