Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is celebrating a slight decline in obesity rates and a drop in soda sales after federal welfare reforms, drug pricing adjustments, and health food campaigns. But what sounds like good news to most people is bad news for Democrats and major pharmaceutical companies. The latter want Americans to stay obese, dependent, and unhealthy.
Democrats want as many people as possible to be dependent on government while making bad life decisions that ensure that they never will be independent again. This is why Democrats encourage out-of-wedlock parenthood, the war of the sexes, unemployment, mass migration, sexual perversion, and entitlement. Meanwhile, Big Pharma has realized that curing people is not as profitable as keeping people perpetually sick and looking for the next miracle drug.
Kennedy is rightly proud of requiring states to change what people can use food stamps for, given that those on food stamps have higher rates of obesity and often misuse the taxpayer-funded benefits for frivolous purchases.
HUGE MAHA WIN: Soda sales dropped 12% nationwide after SNAP waivers took effect in 10 states—a decline projected to prevent 34,000 cases of type 2 diabetes and related chronic diseases and save Americans at least $1 billion a year.
— Secretary Kennedy (@SecKennedy) August 28, 2026
President Trump gave us a clear mission: end… pic.twitter.com/NC1E7xmTz8
In another place, Kennedy boasted about a 3% drop in U.S. obesity over the last 12 months, though he seemed to attribute this primarily to GLP-1 weight loss drugs. I’m not saying these aren’t useful for some people, because they are, but I do think it is dangerous to encourage so many people to use these drugs as a shortcut to weight loss without encouraging them to change their lives into much healthier eating and living habits.
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Drugs like that will only last so long, and they have some very concerning side effects in certain people. I completely understand that Kennedy is excited at the thought of saving a lot of taxpayer money by reducing obesity. But relying on Big Pharma to save us is not the wisest idea. The root causes of obesity in America are not expensive drugs, but all kinds of cultural and economic reasons, including a high welfare rate, the prevalence of fast food and junk food, laziness that spurs constant food purchases instead of cooking, technology obsessions that keep people inside, and a lack of personal responsibility.
That is where I think Kennedy‘s push to get people outside, doing family activities and exercising in national parks, is spot on. Firstly, if there is more community, there is more of an accountability net. Secondly, engaging in healthy communal activities can stave off depression and loneliness that often lead to overeating and poor life decisions. Thirdly, obesity would not be nearly such a problem in America if everyone could and would regularly walk or hike or run outside.
But again, when people lose weight by changing their food or exercising outside, this doesn’t bring any money to pharmaceutical companies. And it makes people less dependent on the government. So from the Big Pharma or Democrat perspective, these are the wrong solutions.
