he/she is essentially america’s top doctor and leading health expert.
here’s an article from todays new york times…
yet another reason to profoundly loathe the bush administration, dismissing global warming and the special olympics as liberal issues.
the bush administration is a huge black stain on america.
read on.
moby
washington, july 10 — former surgeon general richard h. carmona told a congressional panel tuesday that top bush administration officials repeatedly tried to weaken or suppress important public health reports because of political considerations.
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.
when asked after the hearing if that “prominent family” was the kennedys, dr. carmona responded, “you said it. i didn’t.”
dr. carmona is one of a growing list of present and former bush administration officials to charge that politics often trumped science within what had previously been largely nonpartisan government health and scientific agencies.
dr. carmona, 57, served as surgeon general for one four-year term, from 2002 to 2006, but was not asked to serve a second. before being nominated, he was in the army special forces, earned two purple hearts in the vietnam war and was a trauma surgeon and leader of the pima county, ariz., swat team. he received a bachelor’s degree, in biology and chemistry, in 1976 and his m.d. in 1979, both from the university of california, san francisco. he is now vice chairman of canyon ranch, a resort and residential development company.
on issue after issue, dr. carmona said, the administration made decisions about important public health issues based solely on political considerations, not scientific ones.
“i was told to stay away from those because they’d already decided which way they want to go,” dr. carmona said.
he described attending a meeting of bush officials in which the subject of global warming was discussed. the officials concluded that global warming was a liberal cause and dismissed it, he said.
“and i said to myself, ‘i realize why i’ve been invited. they want me to discuss the science because they obviously don’t understand the science,’ ” he said. “i was never invited back.”
dr. carmona testified under oath at a hearing before the house oversight and government reform committee headed by representative henry a. waxman, democrat of california. the topic was strengthening the office of the surgeon general. dr. c. everett koop, surgeon general in the reagan administration, and dr. david satcher, surgeon general during the clinton administration and the first year of the administration of george w. bush, also testified.
dr. koop, said he had been discouraged by top officials in the reagan administration from discussing the aids crisis. he did so anyway.
all three men urged major changes in the way the surgeon general is chosen and the way the office is financed.