Ed Markey Calls RFK Jr. The ‘Hitman On Medicaid, On NIH’ After Announcement Of HHS Cuts

2 days ago

During a press briefing on Thursday, Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) slammed Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr.’s announcement to downsize the HHS.

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Transcript

00:00Senator Markey.

00:04And thank you to my two great colleagues for their incredible leadership on this issue.

00:11I'm Senator Ed Markey from Massachusetts.

00:13I'm the Chairman of the Health, of the ranking member on the Health Committee in the Health Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.

00:23And I want to thank Senators Patty Murray and Tammy Baldwin for their leadership on this issue.

00:30We are already in a healthcare crisis in the United States of America.

00:35Corporate greed is hollowing out nursing homes and hospitals.

00:40Hospitals, pharmacies, community health centers are struggling to keep their doors open.

00:46Health providers are burning out.

00:49Americans are waiting too long and paying too much for healthcare.

00:55Those are the problems we need to be tackling.

00:58Americans are asking for real solutions and demanding that we deliver.

01:04Instead, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

01:06is using the Department of Health and Human Services to do the bidding of Elon Musk and

01:12Donald Trump rather than working on tackling the crisis that we're having in healthcare right now in our country.

01:20It is a make America sick again agenda which Robert F.

01:25Kennedy, Elon Musk, and Donald Trump are seeking to implement in our country.

01:31Let's look at what the agenda has been so far.

01:35Gut biomedical research grants slowing down research into diabetes, Alzheimer's, cancer.

01:42Suddenly disrupting funding for community health centers.

01:47Spreading misinformation about the measles vaccine and pushing fringe conspiracy theories.

01:54Conspiring with Republicans to gut Medicaid, Social Security, food security benefits.

02:01Now fire one quarter of the employees at the Department of Health and

02:09Human Services that have dedicated their lives to our public health.

02:16Today's announcement is not just a restructuring of the Department of Health and Human Services.

02:22It is a catastrophe for the healthcare of every American.

02:27Secretary Kennedy's actions to gut the Department of Health and

02:31Human Services will only leave Americans to get sicker while the rich get richer.

02:37When we cut off resources, we are leaving seniors, people struggling with mental illness and

02:42addiction, and people with disabilities as the first to lose the services.

02:49Disruptions in care will leave families stuck in chaos when they're just trying to get well.

02:56This administration will say this is about efficiency and cost saving.

03:01The only efficiency is efficiently cutting off health care for Americans who need it the most.

03:10The only cost saving is to enable tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires.

03:16Kennedy, Musk, and Trump only serve

03:22themselves and the wealthiest people in our country in order to drain the money from

03:29the healthcare systems in our nation for tax breaks for the wealthiest people in our society.

03:36No cuts to Medicaid, no cuts to life saving research, no cuts to community health centers,

03:42hospitals and pharmacies, no more cuts to healthcare, no more cuts.

03:46That is where we must be as a society.

03:50Donald Trump has hired Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to be the hitman on Medicaid, on NIH,

03:59on all of the funding that provides the security and the health for all Americans and it's

04:06all for the tax breaks for the millionaires and the billionaires.

04:11A vision without funding is an hallucination and that's what they're trying to create and

04:17sell in our nation, that they're going to drain hundreds of billions of dollars out

04:23of all these healthcare programs and then pretend that America is healthier.

04:27Well, he and they are in for a fight and Senator Murray is being a great leader in helping

04:33us to begin this conflict today.

04:36So thank you.

Ed Markey Calls RFK Jr. The ‘Hitman On Medicaid, On NIH’ After Announcement Of HHS Cuts

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