Ted Cruz claims that President Obama's pick for Surgeon General is not a "health care professional" because he is for stricter gun laws.

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.

Rand Paul blocks Surgeon General nominee because he has the temerity to suggest that gun violence is a public health concern. No, seriously!

Courtesy of Think Progress:  

On Wednesday — two years to the day after George Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon Martin — Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) placed a hold on President Barack Obama’s nominee for Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, over Murthy’s view that gun violence represents a significant public health threat. 

“In his efforts to curtail Second Amendment rights, Dr. Murthy has continually referred to guns as a public health issue on par with heart disease and has diminished the role of mental health in gun violence,” wrote Paul in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. 

“As a physician, I am deeply concerned that he has advocated that doctors use their position of trust to ask patients, including minors, details about gun ownership in the home… Dr. Murthy has disqualified himself from being Surgeon General because of his intent to use that position to launch an attack on Americans’ right to own a firearm under the guise of a public health and safety campaign.”

Yes how could ANYBODY assert that firing metal projectiles out of a gun that can tear flesh and destroy internal organs should be considered a health threat?

I mean it just defies all logic.

Later in the Think Progress article it is pointed out that Dr. Vivek Murphy's opinions about gun violence are in step with those of most physicians, and that the AMA has fought for the right of physicians to ask about the presence of guns in the home, and that the AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) has issued guidelines recommending that the households of children diagnosed with depression remove all firearms altogether.

This is yet another attempt to pander to the mouth breathers and gun fetishists who believe that the most important American right in the Constitution is the right to shoot your neighbor in the face if he dumps his leaves in your yard.

 By the way Rand Paul calling himself a physician is almost on par with Sarah Palin calling herself a journalist. 

Bush Administration forced the Surgeon General to put politics ahead of American health concerns.

This is almost unbelievable!

At every turn this administration ignored science or what was in our best interests and deferred to political concerns instead. This is another example of criminal behavior from this White House. Here are some examples:

• The administration, Dr. Carmona said, would not allow him to speak or issue reports about stem cells, emergency contraception, sex education, or prison, mental and global health issues. Top officials delayed for years and tried to “water down” a landmark report on secondhand smoke, he said. Released last year, the report concluded that even brief exposure to cigarette smoke could cause immediate harm.
• Dr. Carmona said he was ordered to mention President Bush three times on every page of his speeches. He also said he was asked to make speeches to support Republican political candidates and to attend political briefings.
• And administration officials even discouraged him from attending the Special Olympics because, he said, of that charitable organization’s longtime ties to a “prominent family” that he refused to name. The Special Olympics is one of the nation’s premier charitable organizations to benefit disabled people, and the Kennedys have long been deeply involved in it.

If there has ever been a more despicable group of people in the White House I have no idea who they may have been. If we ever get a President worse then this one it will surely signal the end of our country, that is if this one has not already done so.