Two celebrity members of President Donald Trump’s cabinet joined Hoosier Gov. Mike Braun on Tuesday to kick off a “Make Indiana Healthy Again” initiative featuring nine freshly inked executive orders.
“You’re setting the stage at the federal level; we’re going to be your best ally at the state level,” Braun told U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz.
He spoke atop a dais before dozens of dignitaries and others packed into an ornate, wood-paneled room at the Indiana State Library. Just outside a pair of large wooden doors, protesters waved signs and chanted, their calls audible.
“This isn’t a usual top-down, one-size-fits-all public health agenda. We’re focused on root causes, transparent information and real results,” Braun added.
His orders deal with government food and health assistance, food additives, student fitness and more — and make Indiana the latest state to promote Trump’s push to “Make America Healthy Again.”
One order would impose work requirements on Hoosiers who receive assistance from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and another “removes candy and soft drinks from SNAP benefits so that taxpayer funds are helping low income Americans afford nutritious food, not junk.”
Oz dubbed Tuesday “a monumental day, not just in Indiana, but for this great nation,” noting Indiana’s nine orders exceed actions by other states.
“It turns out that about the most patriotic thing you can do these days is to get healthy,” Oz added later.