Donald Trump has nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be his Secretary of Health and Human Services. Glenn breaks down what he should do on Day 1 to rein in the corruption at the FDA. But should we be concerned that he will add in too much regulation? Glenn, Stu, and Glenn’s head researcher, Jason Buttrill, debate. Also, is this really just about making our food healthier, or is it also a fight against cronyism?
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: All right. Jason, I know you're here to talk about UFOs and other crazy stuff.
But I want to continue this conversation.
And you did the research for a show that we did, on the FDA.
JASON: Crazy.
GLENN: It's crazy. Crazy. And I think this is the kind of stuff that I want RFK to dismantle. I want him to dismantle the money going back and forth from the drug companies, the revolving door, and Bush. Why would I think of him?
Trump is -- is doing this with big tech too. You work -- work for the government.
You are not going to work for big tech for ten years. Good. Same thing should be true with pharmaceutical companies. And good food.
And here's why. Froot Loops comes from the FDA. They say, we want to make a new product called Froot Loops. And we want to make some of them yellow. So we need. What is it? Yellow number five?
JASON: Sounds like a concentration chemical. Really, whatever it is.
GLENN: So yellow number five.
STU: Delicious concentration camp chemical.
GLENN: Right. So the FDA says, okay. You have to prove that yellow number five is good, is okay to put in.
They don't take a percentage of how many people have we said yellow number five is okay for? So if it's in everybody's food, that changes all the calculations. But forget about that.
We're only talking about Froot Loops.
So they say, you have to show us the study.
Now, think of global warming.
The food company goes to their group of known and trusted scientists.
And say, we need a study that shows yellow number five is safe.
And they're like, oh, we're going to do that study.
We're going to -- it's going to be fair and balanced and totally on the up and up.
STU: You seem skeptical.
GLENN: A little bit. Just like I am with studies that are paid for by the people who are going to benefit from that study.
It's not neutral
STU: Uh-huh.
GLENN: The FDA is then given that study, after it comes back. And says. Yellow number five is phi fine.
They're given that study. And they -- so the FDA says, so the study.
You've got the scientists to approve. Uh-huh. And it was a really tough fight. They really dug deep. So okay. Good. We'll approve it. Give us. How much money was it? Do you remember?
JASON: Oh, it's insane. And it's per batch.
GLENN: Yeah. So it's not just -- yeah. We've proven it. So okay this for Froot Loops.
It's every time that they have to -- they make a new batch of Froot Loops. And they're pouring yellow number five in.
They have to apply for a new license for that batch.
Okay?
Well, wait. It's either good or it's not.
Why?
Let me ask you something: Why do you keep coming to me, and giving me all this money. You know what I mean?
Maybe some day, I can do something for you. You know. Maybe. Maybe. Hey, I have a job opening.
Maybe you guys want to come over here, and police things with us.
That's the problem. And that's what I hope they get rid of.
STU: So are you looking for the FDA to do more or less in this process?
GLENN: I'm looking for somebody that is neutral.
STU: Right.
But I'm asking specifically, the FDA. Which I guess in this theory. In this -- like concept here. We're calling FDA neutral. I don't know we necessarily agree with.
In theory, they're the neutral party here.
Which I think has all sorts of problems. So my -- my -- I think what you're describing is a funding mechanism. Right?
FDA is massive. It costs a lot of money. And they're paying for the FDA to continue to go.
GLENN: Half of -- half of the money from the FDA. Okay?
Half of their budget, comes from food and pharmaceutical companies.
STU: Right. Let's say, you stop that.
You cut the FDA in half.
That's the direction we're looking for. Less input from the FDA.
GLENN: Yeah. I want less FDA to the FDA. And I want an end to the revolving door and an obvious corruption that is coming from money.
GLENN: So when you say that a funding issue, that translated as a crony issue. This is everything that the left used to hate. Everything.
It's everything -- like, I'm a Libertarian, more than anything else.
I guess I'm Libertarian lite. So when I first heard about this.
I got the person that did the bulk of this research. Was one of the biggest hippies on our team. You know who I'm talking about.
GLENN: You know who it is. Don't smoke --
JASON: That one. The other big hippie. But I said, food. I don't give a crap. If I want to poison my body, I want to poison my body.
But when it got me, was when I saw the cronyism angle.
And that's why I don't get Libertarian on this. This is everything you used to be, about big government.
They are getting rich off of an alliance with a lot of these companies.
GLENN: And it appears as though science takes a back, backseat.
They're sitting in the back of the bus.
GLENN: The experts.
And you can apply this to everything that we hate now about big government. Anything else. The push for blah, blah, blah, for the progressive agenda right now. Where they say, well, the experts are telling us this.
Well, the experts are employed by the people pushing their poison! And they are paid directly to --
GLENN: If you understand why we have a problem with clients -- climate science.
Just take what you know about climate science. That this is all being done by the people who want this to be real.
Because they want -- they want the money to keep coming in.
You're not -- you're not denying the -- the planet is getting, you know -- is going to kill us all, within five minutes.
You're not getting any money if the study comes out and says, no, that's not true.
You're not getting money. So the scientists sometimes will come back with the results that the people paying for it, want.
JASON: This would be like, if Elon Musk wants to sell his EVs. And he produces this huge report, saying that the world is spontaneously going to combust, in just two years.
Unless you add here to his research, that his scientists did, and trust us.
It's great!
GLENN: And, by the way. And, by the way, the lithium battery study that I just did.
Fires don't start with lithium batteries. It's not a problem.
JASON: Yeah. Yeah.
STU: So the issue is, you believe these food companies are proving things that theoretically are not helpful.
That are harmful. Then they're producing these studies. And they're giving them to the FDA. And the FDA is just approving them.
GLENN: And the FDA is not -- you know, the FDA. You know, I'm sketchy on this one. You might be able to help me out on this. The FDA made the food pyramid. The food pyramid that we've all grown up. Saying this is absolutely right.
They designed that through the food companies.
STU: Okay. So --
GLENN: It should be through science.
And through knowing what is --
STU: So who is doing these studies, if the food companies aren't paying for them. Who is paying for them?
JASON: The food companies are.
STU: I'm saying, that's your vision of the future.
GLENN: I think there could be a tax on the food companies or pharmaceutical companies.
STU: So they would still be paying for them.
GLENN: They're still paying them.
But they're not picked the scientists. Like, the scientists at general foods say.
STU: So you want a larger role for the FDA. They're deciding --
GLENN: They're the regulator. They are the regulator. It should be them, to prove it's safer.
STU: Aren't you answering your questions why Libertarians don't like it?
You're arguing for a larger role for the FDA. That's why they don't like it.
JASON: Larger responsibility.
STU: Yeah. I'm on the side of, the FDA has nothing to do with this. I would much rather have the FDA basically shut down, and not have any role in this whatsoever. Now, that is -- it's an old school American view.
GLENN: No. I would be for that.
STU: I don't like government control of this stuff, or input. I think that's why Libertarians don't like it.
What they're doing now, if I'm understanding this correctly. Is that companies are basically on their own, to come up with signs that prove this.
And the FDA basically goes along with it.
GLENN: For money.
And jobs.
STU: Again, and half of their budget.
Other alternative to fund the half of the budget. Is taxpayers.
That's the other alternative.
GLENN: No. Or taxing.
Taxing the food companies. And the pharmaceuticals.
Okay?
You want this service.
STU: Either way. We're paying for it eventually.
We're paying for it in our food. And we're paying for it in our taxes.
Again, I could understand the problems with this.
And this, of course, is true. Right? Companies constantly produce science that helps themselves. It happens in global warming and everything else.
I just think that my -- my -- I'm concerned, here's my concern. Here's my concern.
I don't want the -- I'm from a conservative movement.
That doesn't want the federal government to make me healthy.
GLENN: I agree with that.
STU: I'm of a vision of conservatism, that doesn't want the federal government to make me anything.
GLENN: Correct.
STU: This is a line in the sand for me. And I know a lot of people don't care about it.
But I'm of the conservative movement that yells at Michael Bloomberg for getting rid of large sodas. That's me. That's 100 percent me.
I have seen Jason too much in Taco Bell to know that he is -- I know he's on my side on that part of it.
GLENN: I don't want the government to tell me what I can eat. What I can't eat.
STU: Yes.
GLENN: But I would like -- I would like a -- some science to say, hey.
Stu, not good.
And not from Monsanto. And not necessarily from the government, that wants to control everything.
STU: Yeah.
GLENN: You know, there should be a way to get neutral science. But we don't have that now.
And honestly --
STU: There's been a lot of neutral science produced about food coloring. A lot of it. And you can choose whether to like those studies.
There has been some that have some indications of negative aspects. There have been many, many, that have been like, it doesn't seem like there's much here.
But that being said, the government comes in. And if the government approves a study, is that now gospel?
I don't think that's what we want. I think what --
GLENN: Science -- science is always changing.
STU: Yeah. I mean, it's not. Of course.
But our understanding of it --
GLENN: Yes. Thank you, our understanding.
STU: Science doesn't change.
GLENN: But, you know, I am concerned. Because, look, this is a guy, RFK, who has a very strong opinion on a lot of things.
And it's not my disagreement within this that, well, scientific consensus says X, Y, and Z, therefore he's bad. That's not what my belief is at all.
He has in his head, his own consensus. And he is going to try -- I believe, that he is going to apply his mental consensus over a lot of things that I don't necessarily want changed. I want to make the decisions for myself.
And as long as we live in a world. Where if what he winds up doing with this role, hey, you can spill raw milk all over the place. I'm not going to be concerned about it at all.
GLENN: Okay. So here's the thing.
I've learned this. Gosh, 50 years ago, 40 years ago.
It's never a problem, if you're selling a Volkswagen, and the client buys it.
And you've paid for a Volkswagen.
And it runs like a Rolls-Royce.
STU: No. It's great.
GLENN: If you buy a Rolls-Royce and it runs like a Volkswagen. There's hell to be paid. So what he's selling us, his Rolls-Royce that he is selling us right now, is we're going to cut regulation.
We're going to get out and make things your choice. And give you the transparency that you need to make good choices. But we're not going to force anybody to do anything.
Okay?
That's the Rolls-Royce, that he's promising. If he starts to run the Volkswagen way, which is more federal regulation, less choice, then there will be hell to be paid.
Because you're not -- that's not what you're selling us right now.
STU: Yeah. Look, I -- he's going to do some things I'm really going to like. I'm sure of it.
JASON: I think it's baby steps. Like, I would love to get rid of the FDA as well.
You know me. I would love to dismantle the bureaucracy. But let's take baby steps. Let's at least start with, let's not them collude with big food, Big Pharma, and all that.
Make a ton of money off of our expense. I'll just start there.
GLENN: I actually think -- I mean, he has said himself, the FDA should be shut down. And he said, 90 percent of it should be shut down immediately. I'm all for that. I don't need a baby step. I'm ready.
Okay. Let's do that. You know, let's just know what we're -- what we're trying to do here is to make the government accountable to the people, and giving the people their own rights back, that we stupidly gave to the federal government.