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RFK Jr. has made measles great again with his vaccine policies_ Dem Rep. · INSIGHT TODAY

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  Speaker 1: This week, Health and Human Services Secretary of Robert F.
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  Speaker 1: Kennedy Junior is back on Capitol Hill, extending his marathon
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  Speaker 1: seven congressional hearings in seven days. During contentious testimony last week,
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  Speaker 1: Kennedy softened his stance on vaccines, saying the measles vaccine
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  Speaker 1: is safe and effective for most Americans and may have
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  Speaker 1: saved the lives of children who died in a recent outbreak.
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  Speaker 1: Kennedy attempted to sidestep grilling from Democrats over his longtime
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  Speaker 1: public skepticism on vaccines.
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  Speaker 2: We've done better at preventing measles in any country in
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  Speaker 2: the world.
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  Speaker 3: Trump, approve your decision to end the CDC's pro vaccine
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  Speaker 3: public messaging.
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  Speaker 4: Camray, We've done better at preventing.
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  Speaker 3: That's not answering my question, not anything in my country.
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  Speaker 3: And we don't want to answer the question because I think.
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  Speaker 4: You know, I want to terrible.
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  Speaker 3: Terrible decisions that impact very, very real lives, especially the
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  Speaker 3: lives of children.
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  Speaker 1: Join me now is Pennsylvania congress and Brendan Boyle. He
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  Speaker 1: is the ranking member of the House Budget Committee and
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  Speaker 1: serves on the Ways.
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  Speaker 4: And Means Committee.
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  Speaker 1: And it's nice to see you again. Congress and thanks
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  Speaker 1: for joining me. So Kennedy's testimony comes amid a widespread
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  Speaker 1: measles outbreak in the state of Utah. As health secretary,
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  Speaker 1: he has imposed some sweeping changes to standard vaccination recommendations.
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  Speaker 1: He has promoted misinformation on public health. Were you convinced
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  Speaker 1: by his one point eighty on vaccines that we saw
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  Speaker 1: in that testimony, I mean, should or will it bring
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  Speaker 1: changes to the nation's vaccine policy.
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  Speaker 4: Well, it's great to be back with you.
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  Speaker 2: And the sad reality is that President Trump said he
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  Speaker 2: was going to make America healthy again. What he has
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  Speaker 2: done is actually made measles great again. For the first
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  Speaker 2: time in my lifetime, we have seen the return of measles.
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  Speaker 2: This is something that had been defeated for more than
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  Speaker 2: a half century and now is back amongst us. In
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  Speaker 2: the latest outbreak in Utah, of course, as you know,
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  Speaker 2: is not the only one that we have seen.
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  Speaker 4: We have had a rise in.
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  Speaker 2: Vaccine skepticism in part because of people like Robert F.
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  Speaker 4: Kennedy Junior, as well as some others.
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  Speaker 2: We've had that rise in vaccine skepticism ever since COVID. Then,
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  Speaker 2: combined with the specific changes that Kennedy has made while
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  Speaker 2: he's been secretary at HHS, So I'm glad he was
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  Speaker 2: at least attempting to say the right thing before as
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  Speaker 2: this past week. But as we saw during his confirmation hearings,
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  Speaker 2: he may say something in front of Congress, but then
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  Speaker 2: once he actually goes back to his desk, he does
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  Speaker 2: something quite different.
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  Speaker 1: At that hearing, you talked about a constituent who lost
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  Speaker 1: her six year old grandson, Ahmad Butler, to a rare
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  Speaker 1: form of brain cancer. And last year HHS canceled more
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  Speaker 1: than one hundred and eighty million in National Cancer Institute grants,
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  Speaker 1: and then you have the National Institutes of Health facing
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  Speaker 1: a proposed kind of what more than five billion? How
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  Speaker 1: did Kennedy justified these cuts? And are you reassured that
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  Speaker 1: he is committed to funding cancer research?
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  Speaker 2: Well face with those really disgraceful statistics, Secretary Kennedy did
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  Speaker 2: the only thing he felt he could, and that is
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  Speaker 2: he just flat out misled and lied said that there
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  Speaker 2: were no cuts at all whatsoever.
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  Speaker 4: Which was deeply unfortunate.
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  Speaker 2: But you know, this is one small part of a
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  Speaker 2: larger anti healthcare agenda. Let's not forget that this president
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  Speaker 2: and the Republican Congress have cut more than nine hundred
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  Speaker 2: billion dollars from healthcare in order to fund both tax
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  Speaker 2: cuts for the rich, as well as now an increase
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  Speaker 2: and bloated defense budget to help pay for all of
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  Speaker 2: these unnecessary wars of choice. So it shows you just
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  Speaker 2: how out of whack their priorities are with what the
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  Speaker 2: American people want and need.
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  Speaker 1: Well, the White House Office of Management Budget Director Russell
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  Speaker 1: Bot has also appeared before Congress, five months after you
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  Speaker 1: demand that he testify before the Budget Committee. Democrats pressed
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  Speaker 1: vote to justify the Trump administration's massive cuts to social
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  Speaker 1: safety net programs as well as it's proposed twenty twenty
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  Speaker 1: seven budget, which includes, as you know, a forty percent
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  Speaker 1: increase to defense spending. So what did you make of
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  Speaker 1: his testimony?
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  Speaker 2: Yes, I had quite the forty eight hours because as
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  Speaker 2: ranking member of Budget Committee, I had Russ vote in
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  Speaker 2: front of me most of I think it was Wednesday,
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  Speaker 2: and then the very next day we had Robert F.
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  Speaker 2: Kennedy Junior for hours in front of my other committee.
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  Speaker 2: Ways and means in terms of vote's response is when
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  Speaker 2: I present it to him simply the facts.
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  Speaker 4: As the old TV show used.
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  Speaker 2: To say, that more than fifteen million Americans are going
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  Speaker 2: to lose their healthcare as a result of the tax
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  Speaker 2: bill that was passed last summer.
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  Speaker 4: I cited the CBO official score.
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  Speaker 2: I cited both right of center and left of center
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  Speaker 2: groups that have verified this and said it will be
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  Speaker 2: at least fifteen million Americans will lose healthcare. And then
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  Speaker 2: I asked them about his comment that, oh, well, this
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  Speaker 2: was all because of fraud.
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  Speaker 1: Actually, do me a favorite stop there, because we have
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  Speaker 1: that SoundBite. I want folks to hear it all because
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  Speaker 1: it's powerful. So Josh, our director, let's play that right now.
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  Speaker 2: In addition to the over four trillion dollars it adds
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  Speaker 2: for a national debt, it eliminates healthcare coverage for more
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  Speaker 2: than fifteen million Americans, according to the CBO. The Kaiser
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  Speaker 2: Family Foundation says it's actually more than seventeen.
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  Speaker 4: Million Americans who will lose their healthcare.
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  Speaker 2: Are they really all according to you? Really you're gonna
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  Speaker 2: sit here with a straight face and say.
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  Speaker 4: They're all illegals, they're all defrauding the system. That's actually
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  Speaker 4: your position.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, with regard to the people that have lost that
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  Speaker 2: that's laughable.
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  Speaker 4: What is behind that claim?
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  Speaker 1: It's seventeen million people, the seventeen million losing their healthcare
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  Speaker 1: are all living in this country illegally.
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  Speaker 4: That's great. I didn't know you had the clip and
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  Speaker 4: that you're going to play it. So this is perfect.
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  Speaker 4: Great minds think alike.
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  Speaker 2: Every group that has looked at this, again, not just
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  Speaker 2: left of center or non partisan right of center groups,
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  Speaker 2: all agree it is absolute nonsense. You know, right now,
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  Speaker 2: under US federal law, it is illegal to pay for
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  Speaker 2: healthcare benefits for any person who is here unlawfully. So
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  Speaker 2: the best that the other side can do is just
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  Speaker 2: to flat out lie.
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  Speaker 4: But here's the thing.
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  Speaker 2: They're going to get caught because beginning this December, the
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  Speaker 2: bulk of those healthcare cuts take effect, and those are
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  Speaker 2: the cuts to medicate that's where about ten million of
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  Speaker 2: the healthcare losses and coverage will come from, those deep
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  Speaker 2: Medicaid cuts. You can't convince someone that there's a fact
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  Speaker 2: that's contrary to his or her lived experience.
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  Speaker 4: So when those people start to lose their.
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  Speaker 2: Healthcare coverage, they will know which one of us is
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  Speaker 2: telling the truth and sticking to the facts, and which
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  Speaker 2: one of us is not.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, Congress and Brendan Boyle, come see me again. Thank
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  Speaker 1: you so much,