By Hagstrom Report| The Fence Post, Commentary
Calley Means, a leader of the Make America Healthy Again Movement and a top aide to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr., said Wednesday that the Make America Healthy Again Commission established by the White House “is not going to lay out policy, it is going to lay out why” American kids “are the sickest in the world.”
Means made the statement at a Politico Health Summit at which he said the first job of the commission is “acknowledging the truth” and said after that it will be possible to establish a system that prevents and reverses disease.
Means vigorously defended Kennedy and other HHS officials who have been subject to criticism. He also said Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins “is tied at the hip” with Kennedy in his campaign to restrict some purchases of food, particularly sodas, through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Under questioning from interviewer Dasha Burns about the cost of higher quality food and food deserts, Means said that Kennedy would also welcome governors coming forward with innovative ideas to incentivize the availability of healthy foods through SNAP. The waivers that states must request from USDA to restrict what foods can be purchased can also include incentives for purchasing healthy food, Means said.