Courtesy of Raw Story:
Sen.Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Sunday accused President Barack Obama’s pick for surgeon general of not being a “health care professional” because the doctor had backed a ban on military-style assault rifles.
During an interview on CNN, host Candy Crowley pointed out that the surgeon general should “voice” of public health during the Ebola crisis, but Republicans in the Senate had blocked the appointment of Dr. Vivek Murthy.
“Of course we should have a surgeon general in place,” Cruz told Crowley. “And we don’t have one because President Obama, instead of nominating a health professional, he nominated someone who is an anti-gun activist.”
“And a doctor,” Crowley pointed out. “That’s a health professional.”
“He’s a doctor,” Cruz admitted. “Where he’s made his name is as a crusader against Second Amendment rights, and as a consequence, he didn’t have the votes among Republicans or Democrats.”
Yes that's right, because you recognize that one of the biggest hazards facing the American people is the proliferation of firearms you cannot possibly be a health care professional. Even if you are a licensed physician.
And that is why the NRA is blocking this guy's confirmation.
This article from The Nation might help to explain it:
The post of the surgeon general has been vacant since July, and it looks likely to remain that way for some time thanks to a strident campaign led by the National Rifle Association and libertarian Senator Rand Paul against President Obama’s nominee, Dr. Vivek Murthy.
Murthy has medical and business degrees from Yale, works as an attending physician and instructor at Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard Medical School and has founded several health businesses and nonprofits. He has also expressed support for limited gun safety measures like a ban on assault weapons, mandatory safety training and limits on ammunition, and so the NRA has declared it will “score” his confirmation vote, putting pressure on Senate Democrats running tight re-election races in red states to block Murthy’s confirmation. As The New York Times reported on Saturday, the White House is “recalibrating” its strategy towards Murthy’s nomination, meaning the Senate vote will either be delayed or never happen.
And that is why today, in the middle of media driven hysteria concerning Ebola, we do not have a trusted voice to put the minds of the American people at ease.
Thanks NRA.
The NRA is such an obscene organization, and Ted Cruz masturbates nightly to a photo of Wayne LaPierre.
ReplyDeleteAmazing he can get to his little tool with Palin's claw and drooling mouth tightly wrapped around it.
DeleteCruz is an expert on this subject - he's not an American, yet he's a US Senator and thinks he can be POTUS. Rand Paul isn't even human, yet he claims to be a doctor. /snark
ReplyDeleteHe's certainly not a real American working for the common good when as junior senator from Texas thinks he has the right to challenge, obstruct and goad the President at every turn. If Texas ever starts that secession crap again, I'd gladly approve it simply to cut off his air supply.
DeleteWhat is wrong with this man??
ReplyDeleteMegalomania. He is his father's son.
DeleteHe's an asshole who thinks he's smarter than everyone else.
DeleteWhy not nominate someone who is not a gun control activist?
ReplyDeleteA highly qualified physician was nominated for the position of Surgeon General. Gun violence is, in fact, a public health issue in the US. His recognition of that fact is one more reason he is qualified for the position.
DeleteIt certainly doesn't and shouldn't disqualify him.
So there is no need to nominate someone to satisfy the irrational and irrelevant fears and biases of pro-gun people.
The Surgeon General is responsible for providing Americans with the best scientific information available on how to improve their health and reduce the risk of illness and injury. Gun control is a public health issue.
DeleteEvery medical association of any standing is in favor of gun control. You can read the list here - http://smartgunlaws.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/appendixa.pdf
I started to count them, but the list is too long.
Why bow to the desires of the tea partiers and the GOP? The President nominated the person he thought was best for the job. That's his prerogative.
DeleteAnd Nefer is absolutely right. Gun violence and accidents are a public health concern. Any doctor worth his or her salt understands that.
For one thing, he's not a "gun control activist." He's merely echoing the position of the majority of Americans. It's the NRA that is so determined to thwart the will of the majority.
DeleteFederal positions required to be nominated by the President have a long history of being blocked or opposed to such an extent that names are withdrawn, no matter what political party is in the WH and who controls the Senate. This is nothing new . It isn't like this nominee is the only person capable of this bureaucratic fluff job. The President should have a list of other qualified nominees that might receive better acceptance. That is his job.
DeleteAsk the parents of a 2-year-old who lost their child to a gun accident if gun laws are a public health issue.
DeleteReasonable gun restrictions do not eliminate a person's 2nd Amendment rights, but they DO save lives.
11:02 -- nice try.
DeleteJust imagine how much more time the nation's physicians could devote to acute care and even the prevention of grave health issues if they weren't frantically stitching up and transfusing the victims of gunshot wounds!
DeleteHey, I can dream, can't I?
And if Dr. Vivek Murthy had an all-'Murkan first name like, say, "Bobby," I bet Cruz would have that much less about which to complain. But complain he would...
12:53 by try, do you mean 'reality', or the 'truth'?
DeleteI guess "better acceptance" means "doesn't give a shit about reducing gun-related violence and accidents."
DeleteDid I get that right?
@11:02, you are missing the point. It doesn't matter who the President nominates, the republicans will block that nominee. There is no point in nominating someone else.
DeleteThe republicans could stop obstructing government and stock blocking qualified nominees.
Bugs Bunny cartoon 'what a maroon' 'what a putz' while watching the chase...lol...
ReplyDeleteYou see, if there's no Surgeon General, then they can blame an Ebola outbreak on Obama, because he didn't appoint a Surgeon General !
ReplyDeleteDoes the Canadian Teddy Cruz not know that guns can be a hazard to one's health? More people will die from guns than Ebola.
ReplyDeleteGotta remind you that his accident of Cdn birth has been rectified, and he's now one of yours -- thank goodness! And if Crowley hadn't mentioned that the nominee is indeed a medical doctor, Cruz would have gotten away with his lies. The TPGOPers lie, lie, lie until someone brings them up on their lies. Doesn't happen nearly enough.
DeleteThat's exactly why Cruz says this man isn't a "real" health care professional---because here you have a doctor who wants LESS business!!
DeleteYou know these tools love them some "czars" so they don't want no AG, they want a CZAR it just sounds so much cooler!
ReplyDeleteHOW do these guys make it through a day - they are pant wetting scared of everything! When did America become a country of such cowards??!! And WHY don't the American people call them on it??!!
7:38 AM They can be countered by getting out the vote and knocking them off their pedestals! That is the ONLY answer.
DeleteActually, it's only the czars that Dubya and St Ronnie appointed that they like.
DeleteThe czars that this President appointed are all commie, fascist, soshalist meanies, and Obama is a dictator for appointing them.
Smarmy POS. He's as dishonest as a Palin and the rest of the T-bagging knuckle-draggers.
ReplyDeleteHe follows his sick daddy's marching orders.
ReplyDeleteCruz is one of the reasons Republicans and Teabaggers will lose seats in the U.S. Congress and across the nation in November.
ReplyDeleteVote Americans - for Democrats and Independents. They'll work for those that elect them vs constantly obstructing the POTUS, our government and spreading constant evilness and lies!
President Obama is doing a good job in spite of the assholes. Thank God, he is smart, well educated, kind and so damned cool under fire from the right!
I can't watch this. I hate his guts.
ReplyDeleteCruz is the most vile and despicable character in Congress and quite nearly the entire country. Right up there with his little pet snake Palin. The pair of them are emissaries of the devil whose utter lack of morals and integrity drive them to put their own selfish interests and motives ahead of the good of the Nation.
ReplyDeleteThey skate by the law and profit from their hateful and poisonous rhetoric because someone has decided that sedition and treason are no longer actionable crimes. The Koch machine lucked out finding these two greedy, totally lacking of conscience, mercenaries to do their bidding and dirty work. Enjoy your loot and attention assholes, a day of reckoning may yet be in your future for your wicked behavior.
My dog, what an asshat. Let's see, I think my Insurance guy can't insure me because he's not also a plumber. What kind of bizarro world does Cruz live in? This guy can't actually believe the snake oil he sells. Disingenuous does not even begin to describe this narcissistic pinhead.
ReplyDeleteThat whole "health care professional" BS that began when much medical care was transferred to physician's assistants and nurses. Who were mostly completely qualified to serve the public, but were not, themselves, PHYSICIANS>
ReplyDeleteCrowley meekly said the nominee was a doctor, but that term has been watered down a bit -- doctor of dentistry, doctor of podiatry, doctor of veterinary medicine?
The nominee to be Surgeon General is an extremely well-trained and experienced PHYSICIAN whose job would be to work toward the greater health of all Americans.
Fifty years ago, the Surgeon General warned about the hazards of smoking, and the tobacco companies fought every way possible. Now, the NRA, an entrenched industry, which hides behind the second amendment, is doing the same.
Cruz is a nasty tool who looks the part. Our Lady of Perpetual Sorrows. We must make sure he can't get a committee chairmanship or any more power with a Republican Senate majority.
Who wrote this for Cruz? What's a bigger threat to world health, guns or any virus?
ReplyDeleteSorry, NRA, that boat don't float.