Posted on 01/31/2025 6:01:59 AM PST by MtnClimber
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation hearings for Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) have seen some of some of the harshest questioning of any of President Trump’s cabinet nominees by D.C. hardliners.
One upside to the acrimony is that Kennedy’s harshest critics and defenders of the status quo are now being publicly revealed as the lawmakers to whom the pharmaceutical industry has donated the most money.
A Midwestern Doctor @MidwesternDoc The hostility @RobertKennedyJr experienced at his hearing was directly proportional to how much Pharma money each Senator received. In fact, each of them simply repeated the same attacks we just saw flood the mass media (all of which were blatant lies). 🧵
Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is the largest recipient of money from Big Pharma, asked Kennedy if healthcare was a human right and then refused to let the HHS nominee answer his question with anything other than a “yes” or “no” answer.
Sanders would not let Kennedy differentiate between unalienable rights like free speech and man-made “rights” that create ever-increasing obligations to the government.
Sen. Sanders has been the recipient of nearly $2 million in donations from pharmaceutical companies.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) showed herself to be one of Kennedy’s most strident detractors and was, by far, the angriest of the lawmakers questioning him during yesterday’s confirmation hearing.
Sen. Warren accused Kennedy of wanting to sue vaccine manufacturers whose vaccines cause harm as a means of personally enriching himself and warned that holding Big Pharma accountable for any harm caused could bankrupt the industry.
Kennedy responded, “Senator, you’re asking me not to sue pharmaceutical companies,” to which Warren became enraged shouting, “No, I’m not!”
Warren is third on the list of U.S. Senators who have accepted large amounts of Big Pharma money having received nearly $1.2 million in donations from the drug industry.
Sanders and Warren are just two of the Senators engaging in astonishing hypocrisy for accusing Kennedy of trying to get rich at the expense of the health of the American public while lining their pockets with cash from Big Pharma.
Pay attention to who has accepted the most in drug industry money and it’s easy to connect the dots to who is fighting the hardest to prevent Kennedy from being confirmed.
Unfortunately this is not obvious to most democRAT voters.
Which ones aren’t?
Looks like the two democrats won’t be chosen. I think Kash and the rest will be. But RFK and Gabbard, the democrats, won’t make the cut. Trump did well. Hopefully his replacements will be MAGA republicans this time.
Reagan was a Democrat, too, at one time.
I disagree with the assertion that our politicians can be bought. They aren’t loyal or honest enough to be bought - they can only be rented for a time like $50 whores. If the money stops coming in, they’ll forget they ever knew Pfizer.
Faucahontas showed America her ass. She is representative of the people of Massachusetts who are all bad like her
Electoral reform needs to need a cap on lobbying contributions, contributions in soft money and PACs. The playing field needs to be leveled so corporations and billionaires do not have unequal advantages over mere voters and taxpayers.
Honestly just publishing who gives money in a clear way is better than a ban. We are so post biggest media buys wins.
Not a ban, a cap.
Sanders and other Democrats on the committee who took money from Big Pharma are displaying a gigantic conflict of interest- but they wouldn’t be democrats if they didn’t.
It’s not “big pharma” to ask questions about whether RFK Jr. thinks that vaccines cause autism and whether we’ll be able to buy Big Macs if we want them.
Sounds great in theory, but not reality. McCain/Feingold was supposed to "get the money out of politics", but even more money flows in via PACs. All it did was make sure that only the most connected in DC could have a financial say.
A lot are owned by Big Pharma.
At least a few Democrats will probably vote for Kennedy. They want quality food and pharmaceuticals too.
Are any Republicans against Kennedy?
I don’t believe in campaign finance laws.
Vermont and Massachusetts voters know what Warren and Sanders are. No additional money would be needed to clarify that.
It's a barrier to entry for competition.
Cassidy says he is struggling. i wonder if he gets a lot of $ from Pharma.
“At least a few Democrats will probably vote for Kennedy. They want quality food and pharmaceuticals too.”
Quality and food and pharmaceuticals don’t really matter to them. They want POWER and MONEY. They love both of them more than they love their kids who would benefit from healthier lifestyles.
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