The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services oversee several of the country’s largest government programs, providing health coverage to more than 150 million Americans. They regulate health insurance and set policies that guide the prices that doctors, hospitals, and drug companies pay for many medical services. About a quarter of all federal spending runs through the centers. To lead this vital department, Donald Trump has selected a guy he thinks looks good on TV, Dr. Mehmet Oz. Personally, I think “Mehmet” sounds like a rodent that sticks its head out of a hole in the ground. You may recall Dr. Oz from his recent losing run for a Pennsylvania Senate seat, a state where he doesn’t live. He was hand-picked for that losing campaign by Donald Trump.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services are part of the Department of Health and Human Services, which also includes the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. To head that cabinet-level department, Trump picked Robert F Kennedy Jr. RFK does NOT have a medical degree or any experience whatsoever to lead this department unless you consider hiding a bear carcass in Central Park and sawing the head off a whale so you can take it home on the roof of your car medical experience.
You would think Trump would have learned from his mistakes during his first term (sic) but yet, he’s nominating unqualified and corrupt goons and weirdos again. If you look at Trump’s list of nominees to find one of the “best and brightest,” good luck.
RFK Jr. got the nomination to lead a department he’s not qualified for because Trump was the highest bidder. Kennedy offered his endorsement to the Harris Campaign, but they found it laughable. I do too.
Unlike RFK Jr, Dr. Oz is an actual doctor but keep in mind, so is Ben Carson, who once believed he was being asked in a congressional hearing about the price of Oreos and has this photo in his house.
Trump said in a statement that Dr. Oz would “work closely with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to take on the illness industrial complex, and all the horrible chronic diseases left in its wake.” To reassure us that his pick is capable of running a large federal bureaucracy where he has zero experience, Trump added that Oz had “won nine Daytime Emmy Awards hosting ‘The Dr. Oz Show,’ where he taught millions of Americans how to make healthier lifestyle choices.” Well, now I feel better. Maybe that’s why Gaetz suddenly withdrew his name from consideration for attorney general, he doesn’t have any Daytime Emmy Awards.
Kelly Clarkson has a Daytime Emmy Award, so why don’t we make her the new FBI director?
In regards to Dr Oz, Washington Democratic Senator Patty Murray said, “Even putting aside the raft of alarming pseudoscience Dr. Oz has previously endorsed, it is deeply disappointing to see someone with zero qualifications being announced to head up such a critical agency.”
Dr. Oz pushed one of Trump’s favorite false COVID cures, hydroxychloroquine during the pandemic. I’m not sure of his stance on shooting Clorox up your ass. He’s also pushed fake weight-loss drugs with zero evidence they work. But that’s OK because this week’s nominee to lead the DOJ once claimed without evidence that fake ballots in Pennsylvania were used to elect Joe Biden in 2020. I’m sure we’re all going to be just fine.
Dr. Oz once proposed a new universal health coverage system funded by a 20 percent payroll tax. That’s not very Republican.
This agency that Trump wants Dr. Oz to head also oversees insurance marketplaces established by the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), which Trump tried to kill.
Republicans also seek to cut federal funding for Medicaid and tighten the rules for eligibility. Medicaid cover covers more than 70 million poor and disabled Americans, people Republicans don’t care about unless to mock them in public the way Donald Trump did to a disabled reporter.
Oz also has financial stakes in companies regulated by the agency he seeks to lead. Of course, that’s corrupt but with Trump in office and grifting taxpayers and Elon’s conflict of cutting government spending while he has billion-dollar contracts with the government, we don’t care about corruption anymore.
Dr. Oz will not bring us a better health system. He’ll bring us corruption and crudites.
My medical advice for you over the next four years is to try not to get sick.
Quack!
Drawn in 30 seconds:
Timelapse with a voiceover:
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Exceptional work on this toon and blog. And as for Dr. Oz, thank Oprah.
It's all about the chaos. Trump doesn't care if government works or not, but he DOES care about keeping his name in view. Ox and Kennedy will accomplish that.
Trump got elected because he did figure out two things the Democrats did not.
1. For that undecided 4%, it's all about name recognition. They vote for the name they recognize.
2. A *LOT* of people showed up and voted for Trump only. That's why down ballot did better.
They were voting for another "TRUMP CHECK".
For some folks, that "TRUMP CHECK" was the most money they ever got in one lump sum in their entire life. And they think they'll get it again, after all, they've been told (by liars) that the economy is terrible for four years, so, Trump in, "TRUMP CHECK".
If Trump starts pushing for another "TRUMP CHECK", you'll know he wants to run yet again, as if the national nightmare hasn't gone on for long enough. Augh!
Oh, well, in that case, his most likely opponent would be Obama.