As Democrats Pathetically Bash Kennedy, the Movement he Inspired Continues to Rack Up Successes

By Adam Garrie and Staff of The Kennedy Beacon

Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has achieved historic shifts in public perception around everything from chronic disease to nutrition to the pharmaceutical industry. These changes in the national conversation about health are translating into big wins at the policy level thanks to the huge grassroots efforts of the MAHA movement.

And yet, judging from the congressional hearing on Tuesday, Democrats are blind to the movement and its momentum. During the Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, they were piranhas, out for Kennedy blood.

One explosive example: Senator Appropriations Committee Vice Chair, Patty Murray (D-WA), began her anti-Kennedy barrage by railing against his record during his first 100 days: “Secretary Kennedy, things aren’t going well,” she said. “It’s clear that what you're doing across HHS is devastating to children, families, Seniors – millions of Americans that HHS programs support.” She bashed Kennedy’s budget cuts as “illegal” and, with hyperbole and mischaracterization, she and other Democrats erroneously attacked Kennedy for cutting critical funds that, she said, “will leave America sicker and weaker.”

The war of words escalated between Kennedy and Murray, when the Secretary robustly defended his record, replying, “Senator Murray, you have presided here for 32 years so you have presided over the destruction of the health of the American people,” Kennedy said. “Our people are now the sickest people in the world, because you have not done your job.”

Kennedy then asked Murray, “What have you done about the epidemic of chronic disease?”

As Kennedy continued to defend himself against Murray’s accusations, the Chairwoman asked him “to hold back and let the senator ask the questions.”

Earlier in the hearing, Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) aptly asked the Secretary, “You understand, Mr. Secretary, there is nothing you can do that will make my Democratic colleagues happy?” Secretary Kennedy replied, “I am coming to understand that.”

Given Democrats’ fierce contention, it is odd to think that many of them have long supported some of the policies that Kennedy is enacting. For instance, Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) supports healthier school lunch programs. Senators Bernie Sanders (D-VT) and John Hickenlooper (D-CO) have supported action to lower the price of prescription drugs. Even California Governor Gavin Newsom supports removing toxic dyes from the food supply.

Such positions are all but forgotten when Democrats in both the House and Senate have an opportunity to address Kennedy to his face.

As illustrated during Tuesday’s hearing, Democrats remain out of touch with the MAHA movement.

It is a movement that, in many respects, has quickly become one of the most demographically broad since the electorally successful New Deal coalition born in the 1930s. Supporters of MAHA include many groups. There are former and current Democrats who are dismayed by their party’s capture by Big Pharma and Big Agriculture. There are moderates who follow good policy irrespective of party. The MAHA right, which itself is made of many distinct groups ranging from moderate populists to libertarians and Buchananites, has also rallied around MAHA.

MAHA’s victories are by no means limited to federal politics either. Nearly 40 states have passed and are set to pass further MAHA-related legislation. This has happened at a speed that ought to surprise anyone who has followed politics for a significant period.

Consider that the following has been accomplished in just over 100 days since Kennedy’s confirmation as HHS Secretary:

–A first of its kind national study on the environmental cause of the Autism epidemic

–The end of CDC recommendations for Covid vaccines among all but limited high risk groups

–The ban on toxic petroleum based artificial food dyes

–FDA action to reclassify and study potentially harmful ingredients across the national food supply

–New rigorous placebo-controlled studies introduced for all vaccine clinical trials

–The end of funding for cruel experiments on animals

–Cooperation with states to remove fluoride from drinkable water

–Action to remove indigestible fluoride from children's medicines and supplements

–The suspension of dangerous gain-of-function research at the HHS lab at Fort Detrick

–An Executive Order banning the funding of most gain of function research overseas, with additional oral commitments to tackling the crisis domestically

–Work with multiple states to ban the purchase of junk foods via the SNAP program

–Technological integration of cancer research, diagnosis and patient support

–No funds to schools that mandate COVID vaccination

–Operation Stork Speed, launched to provide safer baby formula to consumers throughout the nation

–Private sector support for higher quality/healthier food including from Pepsi, Tyson Foods, Steak ‘n Shake, In-N-Out Burger and others.

This is not an exhaustive list. It’s just some of what Kennedy and his team have accomplished in their first 100 days.

The popularity of these policies is based on the prioritization of patient outcomes over funding for major pharmaceutical companies and risky experiments, including gain-of-function research. It is also due to the fact that issues of personal well-being, as measured by objective, gold-standard science, are returning to their roots as a non-partisan commitment to the scientific method.

While Democrats in Washington continue their vendetta against Kennedy, with shrill voices and biased vitriol, the nation has moved on. MAHA is popular, and based on its track record and momentum, that popularity is only going to increase.