President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, including Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., should refuse to appear before Congress.

After all, the Constitution, which enshrines the separation of powers, does not require it. Thus, until members of Congress get their acts together, members of Trump’s administration have better things to do.

For instance, at a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Thursday, Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon delivered the usual hyperbolic harangue about harm allegedly done to children by Kennedy’s review of the entire medical establishment’s decades-long practices, prompting a sharp and appropriate rebuke from the secretary.

As so often happens at these pointless hearings, the senator spoke at length, reciting talking points rather than posing questions.

When he did finally get around to asking a question, Wyden had no interest in hearing a full response. Democrats never do. Instead, they prefer to hear themselves speak.

Perhaps they hope their talking points will produce viral clips. Either way, Kennedy should not have wasted his time.

“I don’t think, Mr. Secretary, this is about you and me,” the grandstanding senator concluded while reading from notes. “This is about kids being pushed in harm’s way by reckless and repeated decisions to get scientists and doctors out of the way and allow conspiracy theories to dictate this country’s health policy.”

One wonders which Big Pharma lobbyist wrote Wyden’s notes. We may rest assured that one of them did.

“I don’t see any evidence that you have any regrets about anything you’ve done or plans to change it,” the senator added. “And my last comment is, I hope that you will tell the American people how many preventable child deaths are an acceptable sacrifice for enacting an agenda that I think is fundamentally cruel and defies common sense.”

For good measure, Wyden pointed his finger, clenched his fist, and raised his voice, feigning emotion while reading prepared statements.

Finally, the committee chair gave Kennedy a chance to respond. And the response was worth the wait.

“Senator,” the secretary began, “You’ve sat in that chair for — how long? 20, 25 years? — while the chronic disease in our children went up to 76 percent. And you said nothing. You never asked the question why it’s happening — why is this happening?”

Readers may view the entire exchange in the YouTube video below. Wyden’s closing remarks, followed by Kennedy’s rebuttal, begin around the 5:36 mark.

Kennedy did not identify the source of his “76 percent” figure. Nonetheless, recent research supports his broader assertions.

“The US is currently seeing an unprecedented number of youth with pediatric-onset conditions,” researchers concluded in the 2025 article “Prevalence and Trends in Pediatric-Onset Chronic Conditions in the United States, 1999–2018,” which appeared in the journal Academic Pediatrics.

“It is incumbent for the US health system to seek ways to treat these patients in pediatric settings and eventually matriculate them into adult care.”

Meanwhile, according to a May press release from the Department of Health and Human Services, Trump’s Presidential Commission to Make America Healthy Again published a “groundbreaking assessment” that identified causes of the “childhood chronic disease crisis,” including “a range of contributing factors — including poor diet, accumulation of environmental toxins, insufficient physical activity, chronic stress, and overmedicalization.”

That last item, “overmedicalization,” undoubtedly inspired drug companies to unleash their proverbial attack dogs against the secretary.

Sure enough, Kennedy has come under fire recently for what Democrats like Wyden regard as upheaval in the medical establishment.

In June, the secretary fired everyone on the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, which advised the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccines.

Then, last week, the Trump White House fired CDC Director Susan Monarez. Her ouster led to four high-profile resignations at the CDC.

Amid the changes, Trump himself has apparently reversed his stance on the controversial COVID vaccine. In place of his former unbridled enthusiasm, the president demanded Monday “that the Drug Companies justify the success of their various Covid Drugs.”

In other words, Kennedy appears to have Trump’s backing.

Thus, Kennedy and all Trump administration officials should avoid subjecting themselves to grandstanding spectacles in Congress.

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