RFK Jr.’s efforts to reform US health policy largely successful: Jillian Michaels | The Hill
What this video covers
A NewsNation segment built around Kennedy’s testimony before two House committees — his first of the year — as the administration proposed a nearly $16 billion budget cut to HHS. Michaels defends most of the cuts, weighs in on the FDA’s plan to consider 12 peptides, and gives a mixed “fifty-fifty” verdict on the MAHA movement’s progress so far.
Key points
- Michaels says cuts are unavoidable with a national debt she puts at $39 trillion, while acknowledging Kennedy is “fairly clearly not happy” about some of them, including cuts to food assistance.
- She argues HHS is bloated with overlap — citing, she says, 42 different departments looking at maternal health within the agency — and should be condensed and streamlined.
- On a proposed NIH cut she puts at roughly $5.7 billion, Michaels argues American taxpayers fund drug research and development up front, after which drug companies patent the molecules that work and charge Americans a premium; the cut, she says, makes industry take responsibility for its own R&D budget.
- On peptides, she notes the FDA will meet this summer to consider 12 of more than 200 peptides — the most heavily researched — and argues that letting proper compounding pharmacies make them is safer than the gray market, where people self-inject products that may contain heavy metals and hormones. The segment also airs the counterargument from physician Dr. Shah, who says manufacturers should first have to run studies proving the peptides are safe and effective.
- Asked for a pulse check on the movement, Michaels says “fifty-fifty”: people were hoping for more, and, she says, there is still a lot of upset over the executive order giving Bayer immunity for glyphosate.
- She credits the administration with changing the food pyramid, working to remove pre-authorizations that delay medical care, lowering drug costs, and getting lead out of baby formula — concluding, “they’re doing a heck of a lot,” and that it is far better than the previous administration, though “not perfect.”