WASHINGTON — The Republican chairman of the committee grilling Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday suggested Democrats weren't doing their jobs, while the panel's top Democrat delivered a one-word verdict on Kennedy's performance: "baloney."
"I really don't think that Democrats are asking strong questions," House Ways and Means Committee chair Jason Smith told Raw Story. "If I was in the minority, I think I'd be asking a different style. So it's kind of shocking."
Rep. Richard Neal (D-MA), the committee's ranking Democrat, had a one-word response when asked about Kennedy's claim that he had removed politics from the Department of Health and Human Services.
"That's baloney!" Neal declared.
Neal also pushed back on any suggestion that the Kennedy family's legacy on public health could be claimed by the Trump administration.
"We built a mecca, as you heard me say, in Massachusetts with his family — Republicans and Democrats. It's entirely bipartisan on our side and we're not giving it up," Neal said.
The hearing was Kennedy's first before the House Ways and Means Committee this year, as he sought to defend a proposed 12.5% cut to the HHS budget — nearly $16 billion — while dodging pointed Democratic criticism over measles outbreaks and his administration's rollback of vaccine recommendations.
Democrats pressed Kennedy hard on a measles-related child death in Texas last year, getting him to acknowledge the vaccine could have potentially saved the child's life. Republicans, meanwhile, largely praised Kennedy's tenure, with one member calling his work a "breath of fresh air."