Less than 18 months ago, a broad working-class coalition coalesced behind President Donald Trump’s America First vision, rejecting the Democrats’ failures of the previous four years and delivering Republicans a strong mandate for change and the unified government control needed to implement it.
Trump immediately delivered on his promise to transform government, implementing much-needed government efficiencies, supporting working families through the tax cuts and deregulation measures in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and establishing trade policies that are pro-worker and truly put America first.
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Yet, with the midterm elections less than eight months away, these massive, transformative wins are at risk of being forgotten. And the Trump administration’s ability to implement the president’s sweeping vision fully after January 2027 faces a threat from within.
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Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s appointment to lead the department has introduced a chaotic agenda into American health policy. Operating under the Make America Healthy Again banner, HHS has entertained proposals that could lead to the downfall of the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.
Those who wish to undermine the program, either by overloading it with cases so it collapses, or by changing the law to remove the crucial protections that foster medical innovation, claim they are standing up for the rare number of victims of vaccine injuries. But their efforts to destroy a program that has paid more than $5 billion to vaccine-injury victims would close off a pathway to justice for future claimants, while making life more difficult and less affordable for most Americans.
The MAHA movement believes its agenda is to uphold principles of health freedom, so long as liberty is strictly defined as the right to launch endless lawsuits against corporations. But true economic liberty and health freedom are fundamentally predicated on having access to life-saving choices; ones neither mandated nor restricted by the government other than ensuring they meet long-standing, common-sense safety requirements.
VICP, through its dual roles as a provider of regulatory predictability for manufacturers and an efficient avenue for victims to receive compensation for legitimate injuries, has been a foundation for freedom since its founding. But Kennedy has demonstrated his intention to destroy VICP by stacking the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices with anti-VICP voices.
Even after a federal judge in March blocked Kennedy’s appointments and labeled many of his appointees as “distinctly unqualified,” HHS has tried extraordinary workarounds, including issuing a new ACIP charter, to get around the judge’s ruling. If Kennedy ultimately succeeds, the outcome could be a deluge of vaccine injury lawsuits going directly into state-level civil courts.
Working-class families depend on a stable vaccine supply, and on the coverage that keeps it affordable. Under the Affordable Care Act, insurers must cover every ACIP-recommended vaccine in full, a rule that has made childhood shots much easier to access. If Kennedy’s panel strips those recommendations, that guarantee vanishes, and parents who have never paid for a pediatric shot could suddenly face bills for each one.
When combined with Kennedy’s efforts to upend the vaccine supply chain itself, America risks sliding back to the days of scarcity and higher costs, exactly the kind of economic squeeze that drove working-class voters to Trump in the first place.
The Trump administration needs to recognize fully that the efforts to destroy VICP and undermine vaccine access more broadly are electorally poisonous. Polling has shown these MAHA policies are unpopular not just with liberals, but also with moderates and libertarians, who both powered Trump’s victory in 2024, and who have shown a willingness to vote Democrat in the past.
A recent poll showed that candidates who support eliminating childhood vaccine protections suffer a devastating net 12-point unfavorability at the ballot box. With control of Congress resting on the views of swing voters in a few dozen swing districts, the Trump administration is playing a dangerous game by promoting such unpopular policies so close to the election.
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As we’ve seen over the past few election cycles, Americans value their freedoms and want life to be more affordable. Voters rejected the Democrats in 2024, but the pendulum can and does often swing both ways.
If Americans believe they’re less free than they were 18 months ago, they will vote accordingly to restore those freedoms. If this assault on VICP continues, voters will hand Congress back to the Democrats, and Trump’s legislative agenda will come to a screeching halt.
Mario H. Lopez is President of the Hispanic Leadership Fund.
