Americans Should Cheer Kennedy’s HHS Cuts, Not Boo Them

By Jennifer Galardi, The Kennedy Beacon

Republicans, Democrats, and legacy media have, for the most part, been skeptical about the broad restructuring underway at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

But all the drama is misplaced, as some insiders have noted. The massive cuts – 25% of the workforce across all the health agencies – are needed, not frivolous or dangerous.

In March, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced plans to cut the health agencies’ staff from roughly 82,000 employees to 62,000. His strategy calls for terminating 3,500 people (and their positions) at the FDA; 2,400 at the CDC; 1,200 from NIH; and 300 at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Photo by Reuters

Late last week, the layoffs and early retirement buyouts began to take effect, with some employees protesting. In front of CDC’s Atlanta headquarters they held such signs as “Trust science,” “Trust CDC,” and “ Honk for CDC.”

Despite the hyperbolic coverage in legacy media, Kennedy assured the public that the moves would not affect critical services but rather save American taxpayers up to $1.8 billion per year.

On April 3, Kennedy announced that some employees who had been laid off were being reinstated because they had been mistakenly cut.

Photo by Associated Press

Nonetheless, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) sent a letter to Kennedy, asking him to appear before the committee to explain his cuts. Bill Cassidy, HELP’s chairman, said, “This will be a good opportunity for [Kennedy] to set the record straight and speak to the goals, structure and benefits of the proposed reorganization.”

Photo by Getty

That meeting was originally scheduled for April 10. According to published reports, it’s now been postponed for weeks.

While Kennedy has remained relatively quiet on the cuts, he commented on social media, “This overhaul is about realigning HHS with its core mission: to stop the chronic disease epidemic and Make America Healthy Again. It’s a win-win for taxpayers, and for every American we serve.”

In the same video, Kennedy announced the formation of AHA, the Administration for Healthy Americans, which he says will streamline HHS, eliminate redundancy and “radically improve (the department’s) quality of service.”

Still, those on the left haven’t missed any opportunity to lambast Kennedy, all the while overlooking why so many Americans were excited to see him lead one of the country’s most crucial agencies.

Within the first ten seconds of her interview with PBS Newshour, former secretary of HHS under Obama, Kathleen Sebelius, demonstrated just how much she fails to grasp, like many Democrats, the current mood of the country. “It’s an indication about how little Secretary Kennedy understands about this massive agency,” she told her host. Massive is the operative word. And the massive bureaucracy of unelected officials is exactly what American taxpayers are sick and tired of funding.

As a litigator who has brought dozens of cases on behalf of everyday Americans fighting serious health battles – and won them – it’s possible that Secretary Kennedy understands more about the inner workings and corruption at the state and federal health agencies better than anyone else. He also appears to understand that many HHS jobs are part of a progressive buddy system even as they reveal duplicating efforts while employees collect cush paychecks for doing very little.

Sebelius also said the cuts will mean the agency will lose expertise, timeliness, and “an opportunity to get the best products to the market in a very fast manner,” again demonstrating she is oblivious to the MAHA message. No doubt she means the experts that set the standards for disastrous Covid policy – the experts, like Anthony Fauci, who silenced opposing voices while rushing drugs to market.

To push the pathos, most liberal media outlets are relaying tales of woe, with devastated employees shaking their heads at the cuts. “This is not fair,” one HHS employee said between tears. “Normally they look at job series, performances, costs. I don’t think that’s happening.”

This woman is correct. It isn’t necessarily fair. Layoffs due to cost cutting efforts rarely are. Unfortunately for her, like many Americans, she likely got used to living in an economy that is artificially bolstered by government paychecks, particularly under the Biden administration. One that requires illness as a way of life to turn a profit.

Those who have the inside track on HHS inefficiencies and spending have tried to relay a rational message to the American people. In a thread on X, David Mansdoerfer, former HHS Deputy Assistant Secretary of Health, wrote “Two things can be true: 1) good people lost their jobs today & 2) this shock to the system needed to happen to begin to restore trust and efficiency to the department.”

Mansdoerfer continued, “Managerially – this type of action has a chance to significantly change the culture of complacency and status quo inside a department where employees, on average, all received stellar performance ratings (because performance ratings in government are basically worthless). This is a good thing.”

Many who support the HHS cuts and DOGE efforts continue to make the point that if the private sector operated like the government, businesses would be insolvent in no time and shutter their doors. They also state that the RIF (reduction in force) is merely an attempt to return to pre-2020 spending levels, minus 10%.

Roger Severino, who served as the Director of the Office Of Civil Rights at HHS under Trump’s first term, told PBS News that there was “so much fat in the agency.” Under the Biden administration, he said, the HHS budget ballooned 38% to 1.9 trillion with no results to show for it. America continues to demonstrate some of the poorest health outcomes among developed nations. Severino blames this on a misdirected focus more concerned with “pushing paper around” than measurable outcomes.

Severino, who now serves as the Director of Domestic Policy and the Heritage Foundation, also called out the revolving door between pharmaceutical executives and government agencies. “Good health isn’t necessarily the most profitable thing for big pharma and big medicine,” he -said. “Healing people sometimes costs them money.”

Lastly, Severino commented on how the agencies tended to silo themselves in their own areas of expertise, creating “mini fiefdoms” and power struggles rather than fostering an ethos of communication and cooperation across all departments. He believes consolidation will streamline HHS’s efforts and help improve the delivery of healthcare.

Still, the drama and hyperbole about the cuts persists from legacy media and others who can’t seem to grasp either Mansdoerfer’s or Severino’s rationale.

Their obsession with funding research for vaccines and global threats that don’t exist yet, rather than dealing with the imminent threat of chronic disease at home, blinds them to what millions of Americans need and demand: an end to a medical system focused on symptom management rather than cures, and billions of dollars in profit for a handful of already fat pharmaceutical companies.