Wyden Floor Remarks Opposing the Nomination of RFK Jr. to be HHS Secretary
As Prepared for Delivery
Watch a video of Wyden deliver his remarks here
I rise today to oppose the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
There’s been a lot of ink spilled about this nominee over the past several months. Based on what senators have heard in Mr. Kennedy’s two hearings, one fact stands out.
A vote for RFK Jr. is a vote for a sicker America.
There’s irony in that judgement, considering Mr. Kennedy is the figurehead of a mass movement known as “Make America Healthy Again.” But on issue after issue, Mr. Kennedy refused to stand up for policies that will keep Americans healthy and out of the hospital.
From vaccines to affordable health insurance, to lower drug prices, to women’s reproductive health care, Mr. Kennedy ducked, dodged and weaved instead of answering basic questions.
When he did answer, he demonstrated a shocking lack of knowledge about the federal health programs he’ll be charged with running, and a willful desire to mislead senators about his views on science matters like vaccine safety.
The only conclusion I’m left with is that he stands steadfastly by the outlandish views he’s expressed over his two decade career as an anti-vaccine crusader, and he is fully prepared to implement the Republican health care agenda.
That agenda which boils down to putting Big Pharma and insurance companies back in charge while leaving millions of American families to fend for themselves without affordable health insurance.
In my view this is the least qualified nominee to ever be nominated for a position of this importance. So for the next day and night, Senate Democrats are going to hold the floor and tell the American people why.
My colleagues on the other side of the aisle still have an opportunity to turn away from this dangerous path. If they do not, their legacy will be tarnished by setbacks in science that will echo for decades.
Health care is how I got my start in public service. As the co-director of the Oregon Gray Panthers, I spent countless hours working with seniors to navigate the newly-created Medicare program, and helping them avoid predatory insurance company tactics that remain all-too-common today.
To me, and many other Americans, health care is the most important issue in politics. If you or a loved one don’t have your health, everything else goes by the boards. Working is harder.
Seeing family is harder. Enjoying life is harder. So it’s absolutely critical that America’s health care system is there to keep families healthy.
Unfortunately, it’s clear that’s just not the case for most Americans, who are rightly disillusioned by the state of our health care. A handful of health care companies have gobbled up the entire market for health insurance, pharmaceuticals, hospitals and even doctors.
The results have been great for shareholder profits, and disastrous for American families. Costs have kept on climbing, and the act of getting a doctor’s appointment or filing an insurance claim have been turned into an Olympic sport. Our system delays and denies care, and rakes in profits while patients are left wondering how they’ll get the care they need.
So the question before the Senate this week is whether we want America’s chief health officer to be somebody who will take on those corporate interests in the health care industry.
Somebody who will fight tooth and nail to lower costs and improve care. Someone who will work to protect and improve the federal health care programs that tens of millions of Americans rely on, not gut them at the first opportunity.
Everything I have seen and heard from Mr. Kennedy these last few weeks has led me to conclude that he is not that person.
Americans have very little reason to take Mr. Kennedy at his word. They do, however, have every reason to believe Mr. Kennedy will continue to embrace and amplify his anti-vaccine conspiracies.
Every reason to believe he will back up Donald Trump’s abortion bans.
And every reason to believe he will be a rubber stamp for the Republican health agenda to rip away your health care.
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