New Surgeon General

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Ronin786

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he Senate confirmed Vivek Murthy as U.S. surgeon general on Monday, despite opposition from antigun-control groups concerned about his comments that gun violence is a U.S. public health issue.

Dr. Murthy’s nomination was opposed by both Republicans and some Democrats over the gun issue, opposition that stalled his confirmation vote for months, leaving the public-health post unfilled while the U.S. government wrestled with issues such as the global Ebola outbreak.

His critics said the 37-year-old Dr. Murthy, who was born to Indian immigrant parents and is an associate physician at Brigham and Women’s Physicians Organization in Boston, has been too politically outspoken. In addition to his comments on gun control, which drew the opposition of the National Rifle Association, he also co-founded a group of doctors that advocates in support of the federal health-care law.

“The majority of his career has been spent not as a doctor treating patients, but as an activist, an activist focused on gun control and political campaigns,” Sen. John Barrasso (R., Wyo.) said Monday in explaining his opposition to Dr. Murthy.

But supporters said confirmation of a surgeon general was a critical need. “With over 6,300 [Ebola] deaths and many more diagnosed with this devastating disease, now more than ever America needs to fill the spot of top doctor,” Sen. Richard Durbin (D., Ill.) said in a floor speech.

In the 51-43 vote, 48 Democrats, two independents and one Republican, Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois, supported the confirmation. Three of the chamber’s Democrats and 40 Republicans voted no.

The confirmation was part a last-minute push by Democrats to secure votes on a number of judicial and executive branch nominations before Congress adjourns for the year. Republicans will take over the Senate majority when lawmakers return to Washington in January, making it potentially more difficult for Mr. Obama to advance nominees through the chamber.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) on Saturday started the process for holding votes on a long list of nominations this week, taking advantage of a rare weekend sessionof the Senate caused by Republican opposition to the $1.1 trillion government funding bill.

In addition to Dr. Murthy, Senate votes this week will include the nomination of Antony Blinken, Mr. Obama’s pick to be Deputy Secretary of State, as well as Sarah Saldana to be the assistant secretary in charge of enforcing U.S. immigration law at the Department of Homeland Security.

Another nomination, that of Carolyn Colvin to head the Social Security Administration, was withdrawn by Senate Democrats because of concerns that debate over that nominee would have eaten up too much time while senators scramble to complete their work this week.

Dr. Murthy would be among the youngest of surgeons general, who, since the 1960s, have typically been appointed from outside of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.

Dr. Murthy helped to start the Doctors for Obama campaign group, which later became Doctors for America and campaigned for the passage of the Affordable Care Act. “For those of us who see the urgency of our health care crisis in our clinics and for those who have been burned by the failures of the system, we need to stand up and speak out,” he wrote in a 2010 blog post for the Washington Post a few weeks before the health law was passed.

He later volunteered as a health policy adviser on the Massachusetts gubernatorial campaign of former Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator Don Berwick, but withdrew after he was nominated for the surgeon general job in November 2013.

Dr. Murthy and some of his supporters have said that after his confirmation he is more likely to focus on some of the lower-profile campaigns waged by surgeons general in recent years.

“I do not intend to use the surgeon general’s office as a bully pulpit for gun control,” he told a Senate committee reviewing his nomination in February. “My priority and focus is going to be on obesity prevention.” Tobacco, vaccinations, mental health and health disparities are also among his declared areas of interest.

Dr. Murthy has sought to bolster his support on Capitol Hill by meeting with a number of lawmakers one-on-one to discuss his nomination. Despite that outreach, some lawmakers said they still had concerns.

“After meeting with Dr. Murthy, I don’t question his medical qualifications; I just question whether the public will believe that he can separate his political beliefs from his public health views,” Sen. Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.) said in a statement opposing the nomination on Monday.

Dr. Murthy’s resume also includes a seat on the Obama administration’s Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health, which was created by the federal health law. That group has been working to help federal agencies implement the National Prevention Strategy, which was drafted after the passage of the health law by the Office of the Surgeon General and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and includes a section on injury and violence free living that doesn't mention guns at all.

Neither he nor Doctors for America have indicated whether he would take a more active role in promoting the federal health law as surgeon general. He confirmed in his ethics disclosures that he wouldn’t work with the group, or the left-leaning Center for American Progress that funds it, for a year.

“He does represent a new generation of clinicians and a new generation engaged in technology, a new generation of thinking about what public health ought to be,” said Jeff Levi, head of the Trust for America’s Health advocacy group who also chairs the advisory group of which Dr. Murthy is a member. “I think he’ll be strategic in how he uses the office.”

Thoughts? Seems like a pretty horrible choice for physicians.

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Typical Obama appointee. All politics and no substance.

America has an absolute epidemic of obesity caused by lousy dietary habits and sitting around all day. Related to this, we have ridiculous levels of type II diabetes, high blood pressure, etc, etc. Consistently encouraging people to be active and eat real food is about the most bi-partisan effort our government could have had in a long time, and also one of the most useful.

So instead of going after that, we get someone who's going to parrot the DNC's talking points. Sigh.
 
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