Think Progress

Waxman to introduce ‘Surgeon General Independence Act.’

In response to former Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona’s explosive testimony earlier this week, in which he described how the Bush administration censored him from commenting on key public health issues, Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-CA) “announced his plans to introduce legislation to protect the Surgeon General from political interference.” Waxman said, “On key public health issues the Surgeon General has been muzzled. This problem will not solve itself.”



46 Responses to “Waxman to introduce ‘Surgeon General Independence Act.’”

  1. Karim says:

    Give em hell Henry!


  2. Dave C says:

    I can’t wait to see the spin on how it’s a bad thing for the Surgeon General to be independent from partisonship.


  3. Silence Dogood says:

    Of course, The Office of the Vice President will be exempt fromthe Surgeon General Independence Act. How about, “The Attorney General Independence Act” too?


  4. MsJoanne says:

    Go get ‘em Waxman! God I love this guy!

    It’s going to take a long time to clean up 4 years of nonexistent oversight. Thank god they are taking it seriously, no matter how little they can get done with the obstructionist GOP dickwads we still have.


  5. Damian says:

    Get ‘er done, Henry.

    #3 – the USDOJ independence act also sounds like a winner.


  6. GSD says:

    How dare anyone question Shotgun Dick and his organ grinding monkey called The Decider!

    The Surgeon General must be tried for treason for questoning our leaders.

    -GSD



  7. dixie blood says:

    Waxman and TP needs to take a step back and FIX THE SIGNING STATEMENTS PROBLEM FIRST!!

    WHO IS FREE FROM THIS BASTARD PRESIDUNCE UNTIL HIS SHIT IS SHUT DOWN STARTING WITH HIS BULLSH!T SIGNING STATEMENTS!!


  8. Wayne says:

    this is definately needed, especially for THIS president
    We need the same kind of law for the Justice Dept.

    And WTF happened on the Hindu Prayer thread?
    seeing the crazy trolls that desended on that thread was like watching a hoard of rabid, mouth-frothing gerbils in some kind of weird ritualistic orgy.


  9. Troll Hater says:

    > seeing the crazy trolls that desended on that thread was like watching
    > a hoard of rabid, mouth-frothing gerbils in some kind of weird ritualistic
    > orgy.

    Yeah, and apparently the Muslims are the cause most wars. Like Mel Gibson from another dimension.

    But onwards now!


  10. J Lewd says:

    > seeing the crazy trolls that desended on that thread was like watching
    > a hoard of rabid, mouth-frothing gerbils in some kind of weird ritualistic
    > orgy.

    Not surprisingly, it all sounds as if it came from the same keyboard — one supplied by the RNC with content paid for by the same.

    The CIA classifies information, disinformation, and misinformation as viable tools of intelligence. They also utilize heavily the disruption of information, which is what that whole monkey-spastic thread sounded like. Call me cynical, but I believe there’s a larger method to their apparent madness.


  11. celtic cynic says:

    Why doesn’t Waxman and the other legislative types stop writing nice polite letters and attempting to add more confusing, unenforceable laws to this garbage can of crap that they have produced?
    Mayhap they could serve us better by calling attention to those breaking all these laws, by using their powers of enforcement through impeachment and subpoena.
    What are they afraid of? Does somebody have the goods on them? Have they done something wrong in the past? Are they on the madam’s list. Oh no, not again.


  12. JPark says:

    Wow, if Koop was Reagan’s byatch we would still think cigs were the best thing for us…ever.


  13. Pete Bogs says:

    next, eliminate signing statements…


  14. m12 says:

    This bill wouldn’t even go into effect for the current President and the current SG! What an idiotic reflex law!


  15. m12 says:

    How quickly Mr. Waxman has forgotten Clinton canning his Surgeon General!


  16. JPark says:

    m12, you don’t actually care what the laws are, do you? You just care if they help your messiah.


  17. m12 says:

    m12, you don’t actually care what the laws are, do you? You just care if they help your messiah.

    This is a bill, not a law. What law are you referring to?


  18. JPark says:

    Whatever, m12. The point is you are happy it wouldn’t go into effect until AFTER Bush. You are such an a$$-kissing little whore.


  19. TripMaster Monkey says:

    m12 sez:

    How quickly Mr. Waxman has forgotten Clinton canning his Surgeon General!

    How quickly m12 has forgotten that “Clinton did it” is not an acceptable excuse.


  20. m12 says:

    How quickly m12 has forgotten that “Clinton did it” is not an acceptable excuse.

    Hahaha! Apologizing for your hero and the man you probably voted for twice?


  21. m12 says:

    Whatever, m12. The point is you are happy it wouldn’t go into effect until AFTER Bush. You are such an a$$-kissing little whore.

    Why didn’t the Democrats push for anti-pardon, anti-firing laws during/after the Clinton administration?


  22. JPark says:

    m12, maybe because it is unconstitutional? You wouldn’t know what that means, though.


  23. m12 says:

    m12, maybe because it is unconstitutional? You wouldn’t know what that means, though.

    Barney Frank was discussing an amendment in Feb. 2001, so at least 1 person was on board.

    Wonder where the Democratic Congressional leadership was.


  24. TripMaster Monkey says:

    m12 sez:

    Hahaha! Apologizing for your hero and the man you probably voted for twice?

    Hahaha! Wrong on both counts, dolt.

    And lest you continue to leverage this into yet another one of your idiot crusades against Clinton in a fervent attempt to derail the thread, let’s bring in a little perspective.

    From Ex-Surgeon General Says Administration Interfered, by Julie Rovner:

    Accusations that the Bush administration is playing politics with science are nothing new. But Tuesday, those charges came from one of the administration’s own appointees — former Surgeon General Dr. Richard Carmona.

    The hearing before the House Government Reform Committee actually featured three former surgeons general; Carmona, Dr. David Satcher, who served under President Bill Clinton, and Dr. C. Everett Koop, who served under President Ronald Reagan and the first President Bush.

    Koop and Satcher each faced challenges: Koop fought the Reagan administration over his work on the AIDS epidemic, while Satcher fought the Clinton administration over his support for needle-exchange programs to prevent the spread of HIV.

    But all three agreed that none faced the sorts of political challenges that confronted Carmona, who finished his four-year term last year. He testified that the very position of surgeon general is in grave danger.

    “The reality is that the nation’s doctor has been marginalized and relegated to a position with no independent budget and with supervisors who are political appointees with partisan agendas,” Carmona said. “Anything that doesn’t fit into the political appointees’ ideological, theological or political agenda is ignored, marginalized or simply buried.”

    Hope that clears things up for you.


  25. JPark says:

    Ok, m12, if Barney Frank was for tearing up the Constitution I MUST be for it!!! Dipsh!t.


  26. m12 says:

    Comment by JPark — July 12, 2007 @ 10:53 pm

    Most of your fellow liberals on this site are. They were really crying about the Scooter!


  27. JPark says:

    Scooter is a criminal. Why are you orgasming over him?


  28. m12 says:

    Perspective for you, Monkey:

    Joycelyn Elders Fired By Clinton

    The first question that happened to be asked of Joycelyn Elders at this United Nations World AIDS Day Conference: “…if masturbation might be taught as a way to prevent AIDS?” Joycelyn Elders replied: “masturbation is something that is a part of human sexuality, and is a part of something that perhaps should be taught.”

    Joycelyn Elders was fired by President Clinton one week later
    for “values contrary to the administration.”


  29. JPark says:

    Mas!urbation is bad, m12!!!! Right?


  30. TripMaster Monkey says:

    Comment by m12 — July 12, 2007 @ 11:02 pm

    And I assume that you’re expecting me to defend Clinton’s decision? Sorry to disappoint, m12, but your assumption that anyone that dares to speak out against Chimpy is a Clinton groupie continues to be wrong.

    What’s amusing about trolls like you that attempt to defend Chimpy by citing similar offenses committed by Clinton is that you consistently run up against two major difficulties that render your arguments D.O.A.:

    1) Comparing Chimpy’s offenses to Clinton’s is a bit like comparing a tragic combine accident to a nasty paper cut.

    2) If you condemn Clinton for offenses similar to Chimpy’s, you must also condemn Chimpy (that is, if you want to be intellectually honest, which is a good idea if you want to be taken seriously here). If you condemn Clinton, you condemn Chimpy. If you exonerate Chimpy, you exonerate Clinton. You can’t have it both ways, and watching you trolls try again and again to do just that provides us with no end of amusement.


  31. m12 says:

    Firing a SG = paper cut.
    Giving a SG a few directions = combine accident

    Interesting point of view! Where is the provision in Waxman’s bill to prevent the President from firing the SG?


  32. m12 says:

    Mas!urbation is bad, m12!!!! Right?

    Clinton thought so. Hillary probably doesn’t though; Bill wouldn’t have needed Monica if he had done the deed himself!


  33. m12 says:

    2) If you condemn Clinton for offenses similar to Chimpy’s, you must also condemn Chimpy (that is, if you want to be intellectually honest, which is a good idea if you want to be taken seriously here). If you condemn Clinton, you condemn Chimpy. If you exonerate Chimpy, you exonerate Clinton. You can’t have it both ways, and watching you trolls try again and again to do just that provides us with no end of amusement.

    Of course. The SG is part of our uniformed services, bound by military code, and thus subject to all orders and dismissal from the President.


  34. TripMaster Monkey says:

    m12 sez:

    Firing a SG = paper cut.
    Giving a SG a few directions = combine accident

    Still can’t form an argument without dragging Clinton into it, huh?
    How disappointing.

    As for “giving the SG a few directions”, that’s even more ridiculous than usual for you, m12.

    From Carmona’s testimony:

    [A]lthough most Americans believe that their Surgeon General has the ability to impact the course of public health as “the nation’s doctor,” the reality is that the nation’s doctor has been marginalized and relegated to a position with no independent budget, and with supervisors who are political appointees with partisan agendas. Anything that doesn’t fit into the political appointees’ ideological, theological, or political agenda is ignored, marginalized, or simply buried.

    “Giving the SG a few directions”, indeed.


  35. TripMaster Monkey says:

    m12 sez:

    Of course. The SG is part of our uniformed services, bound by military code, and thus subject to all orders and dismissal from the President.

    What a breathtakingly vapid non-answer.

    Do you really think that warping the SG’s medical recommendations to fit the Procrustean bed of Fundie ideology is in the nation’s best interests?


  36. m12 says:

    Apparently firing someone is not ignoring, marginalizing, or burying them.

    Well, ok!


  37. m12 says:

    Do you really think that warping the SG’s medical recommendations to fit the Procrustean bed of Fundie ideology is in the nation’s best interests?

    Certainly better than having no SG at all, as we did in part of 1994.


  38. JPark says:

    m12, Clinton was wrong and wimped out. Sounds like you thought he was right, though. Yeah, masturbation makes you blind, right? Nope, conservatism does.


  39. TripMaster Monkey says:

    m12 sez:

    Certainly better than having no SG at all, as we did in part of 1994.

    Apparently, you didn’t actually read my earlier post. I’ll repost the relevant passage again:

    the reality is that the nation’s doctor has been marginalized and relegated to a position with no independent budget, and with supervisors who are political appointees with partisan agendas.

    So, the fiction of having a SG is better than not having one at all?

    Illusion over reality…how very neoconesque of you.


  40. m12 says:

    So, the fiction of having a SG is better than not having one at all?

    I think so, setting aside your stem cell research voodoo, Carmona was able to push his anti public smoking policy, which liberals might like.


  41. TripMaster Monkey says:

    m12 sez:

    I think so

    So believing that you have an AG that is giving valid recommendations, while what you actually have is a puppet AG that is being forced to distort reason and scienbce in favor of politics and ideology, is preferable to having the position temporarily vacant.

    In short, you think lies are more useful than no information at all.

    Again, how depressingly neoconesque of you.

    setting aside your stem cell research voodoo

    Thanks for supplying another reason why rational people need not take you seriously. Quite considerate of you.


  42. m12 says:

    So believing that you have an AG that is giving valid recommendations, while what you actually have is a puppet AG that is being forced to distort reason and scienbce in favor of politics and ideology, is preferable to having the position temporarily vacant.

    Temporarily vacant? No, if the Dims in Congress keep whining about the new guy appointed, it’ll be vacant for well over 2 years.

    Besides, I have no idea why you focus of a few bits of his agenda and ignore the rest of what he did while he was in his position.


  43. Ben Dover says:

    The problem is this. Will the Chimp sign legislation that would force him to stop doing what he did to Carmona? Nope. Not a snowball’s chance in hell. Passing legislation is great but until we have a President who will actually sign the legislation we’re jousting at windmills.

    I bet when he becomes President, Al Gore will sign legislation like Waxman proposes.


  44. david says:

    Why not introduce legislation entitled ‘Everybody Happy Today’? Congress has no power anymore. We could save ourselves a huge chunk of change just by disbanding them for all the good they do.


  45. m12 says:

    The problem is this. Will the Chimp sign legislation that would force him to stop doing what he did to Carmona? Nope. Not a snowball’s chance in hell. Passing legislation is great but until we have a President who will actually sign the legislation we’re jousting at windmills.

    I bet when he becomes President, Al Gore will sign legislation like Waxman proposes.

    Sure he will sign it, unless Dems attach some abortion rider to it. It won’t affect his Presidency.



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