Sen. John Kennedy just obliterated the Democrats’ narrative on HHS budget cuts with nothing but a few simple questions.
RFK Jr. was under heavy fire.
Then Sen. Kennedy stepped in—and hit a grand slam.
This exchange flipped the whole hearing on its head. You have to see it.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. went head-to-head with Senate Democrats today over major proposed budget cuts, including $18 billion slashed from the NIH and $3.6 billion from the CDC.
But for many Democrats, you’d think it was the end of the world.
Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) led the charge, slamming Kennedy for a $3 billion drop in federally funded biomedical research compared to last year.
Kennedy stood his ground.
“We’re cutting waste, we’re cutting duplicative programs,” he said.
Still, Baldwin wouldn’t let up. She framed the loss of “3,200 fewer grants” as an attack on “life-saving programs.”
Kennedy hit back with a devastating stat.
“We spend 70% of the world’s biomedical research out of NIH. 70%. And we’re the sickest country in the world,” he said.
“We’ve had a 38% increase in our agency growth over the past four years,” he added. “That money has not been well spent.”
The exchange summed up a broader dynamic: Democrats trying to paint RFK Jr. as a villain, slashing life-saving science, while Kennedy pointed out that America’s health is declining because of how this money is being spent, not despite it.
Hellbound and Down 