President Harry Truman famously wished he could find a one-armed economist, a counselor who wouldn’t constantly say, “but on the other hand…” Covering the chaotic course of U.S. health policy under the direction of Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., I can sympathize with Truman’s ambivalent advisers. It’s impossible to discuss the mess at HHS without resorting to a multi-handed analysis.
On one hand, RFK Jr.’s stewardship of America’s massive health bureaucracy is turning into exactly the kind of train wreck his critics feared. Just before Labor Day, RFK Jr. and his deputy Stefanie Spear told Susan Monarez, the newly confirmed head of the Centers for Disease Control, that she would have to go. Apparently, the University of Wisconsin– and Stanford-trained microbiologist—who was nominated by President Trump soon after his return to the White House—wasn’t MAHA enough for the new secretary of HHS. Soon after Monarez left, four other senior CDC officials submitted their resignations. Then nine previous CDC leaders (who served under both Republican and Democratic administrations) penned a joint New York Times stating that Kennedy’s actions “should alarm every American, regardless of political leanings.”
Continue reading the entire piece here at Commentary (paywall)
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James B. Meigs is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a City Journal contributing editor.
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