Second Amendment New Surgeon General confirmed by Senate

Discussion in 'Bill of Rights' started by CATO, Dec 16, 2014.


  1. CATO

    CATO Monkey+++

    Something to keep an eye on. We do not need the HHS bringing firearms under the scope of public health.

    Senate Confirms Vivek Murthy As Surgeon General Over NRA Opposition

    WASHINGTON -- In a rare show of defiance of the National Rifle Association, the Senate on Monday confirmed Dr. Vivek Murthy to serve as surgeon general of the United States. Murthy's nomination had been stalled for nearly a year due to comments he made in support of stricter gun laws.

    Murthy is a Harvard- and Yale-educated physician, and has identified obesity and chronic disease as areas of focus for his tenure. He will be the first Indian American to hold the position.

    The Senate voted, 51-43, to confirm Murthy for the nation's top public health post, which has been vacant since July 2013.


    Sen. Mark Kirk (Ill.) was the lone Republican to vote for Murthy, while three Democrats voted against him: Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Joe Donnelly (Ind.) and Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.). Murthy needed just a simple majority vote based on the rules changes enacted by the Senate last year. A group of doctors watched Murthy's vote from the gallery and broke out into cheers and applause when it was clear that he had been confirmed.

    Murthy's confirmation represents a defeat for the NRA, which mounted fierce opposition to his nomination earlier this year because of previous statementscharacterizing guns as a "health care issue." Although Murthy cleared the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions in March, several Democrats who faced tough re-election battles had threatened to oppose his nomination if Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) brought it to the floor.

    After November's midterm elections, Reid indicated he would revive Murthy's nomination, which the White House said was a top priority prior to Democrats ceding control of the upper chamber. It remained unclear in the last few weeks whether Murthy would still have enough votes to be confirmed, but several moderate Democrats came on board, as health care activists and the Indian-American community rallied in his support.

    More than 100 national organizations backed Murthy's nomination, and top health administration officials under Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton also penned letters urging his confirmation. The crisis over Ebola also offered Murthy's supporters a notable opportunity to draw attention to the vacancy at surgeon general.

    The NRA tried again on Monday to sway senators against Murthy, saying it would score the vote for future political campaigns.

    "The NRA's position hasn't changed. America's next surgeon general should not be a political operative whose professional inexperience has been a source of bipartisan concern," NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam said in a statement.

    Republicans also contested the nomination on the Senate floor, citing not only Murthy's views on guns but also his advocacy for the Affordable Care Act as part of a group he co-founded called Doctors for America, formerly known as Doctors for Obama.

    Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, told colleagues not to succumb to pressure.

    "Go to an emergency room on a Friday or Saturday night, and you tell me that gun violence isn't a public health issue," he said. "Gun violence is a public health issue -- no apology necessary."

    President Barack Obama celebrated Murthy's confirmation in a statement shortly after the vote.

    "As ‘America’s Doctor,’ Vivek will hit the ground running to make sure every American has the information they need to keep themselves and their families safe. He’ll bring his lifetime of experience promoting public health to bear on priorities ranging from stopping new diseases to helping our kids grow up healthy and strong," Obama said. "Vivek will also help us build on the progress we’ve made combatting Ebola, both in our country and at its source. Combined with the crucial support for fighting Ebola included in the bill to fund our government next year, Vivek’s confirmation makes us better positioned to save lives around the world and protect the American people here at home."

    Murthy's confirmation also was met with praise from anti-gun violence groups, which are all too familiar with the politics of gun control.

    Americans for Responsible Solutions, the group co-founded by former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.) and her husband Mark Kelly, said a vote on Murthy was "long overdue."

    "Tonight, the United States Senate did the responsible thing: It stood up to the gun lobby, stood up for common sense, and voted to ensure that the United States has a qualified medical professional as its top doctor," Kelly said in a statement on behalf of the group.

    John Feinblatt, president of the Michael Bloomberg-backed Everytown for Gun Safety, also hailed Murthy's confirmation as a victory against the NRA.

    "This is about more than just the confirmation of our country’s top doctor, it’s also a defeat for the gun lobby that has fought tooth-and-nail to keep gun violence prevention off of the agenda in Washington," Feinblatt said in a statement. "For decades the NRA has suppressed funding for research to understand gun violence and pushed for legislation to muzzle doctors and military leaders from being able to talk to their patients or troops about firearm safety."

    This story has been updated to include statements from Obama and from anti-gun violence groups.
     
    sec_monkey likes this.
  2. sec_monkey

    sec_monkey SM Security Administrator

    [gun]
     
  3. Yard Dart

    Yard Dart Vigilant Monkey Moderator

    [gadsden]

    They are already confiscating weapons from those deemed to have PTSD in some states.... medically revoking our rights is their new angle, since they can not do it legislatively. And now with the ACA in place, and 30 plus fed agencies sharing medical information, it is just a matter of time till they start declaring normal folks, unfit to possess firearms. They will just declare all of us that do not follow the liberal/socialist line, to be unstable... and call for weapons surrender..... this will go down badly for them I suspect.
    [freedom][gun2]
     
    stg58, oldawg, kellory and 1 other person like this.
  4. stg58

    stg58 Monkey+++ Founding Member

    Given they way federal judges legislate from the bench barry's appointments to the federal courts are equally disturbing.
    ........................................
    Lawmakers negotiated Tuesday over a final batch of President Barack Obama's judicial nominees with Democrats hoping to win Senate confirmation for up to a dozen of them, a final burst that would push this year's total to the highest annual figure in 20 years.

    The Senate has approved 76 federal court of appeals and district court judges so far this year. Confirmation of 12 more would bring this year's total to 88 ? the most since a Democratic-led Senate approved 99 of President Bill Clinton's appeals and district court nominees in 1994, according to Russell Wheeler, who studies the judiciary at the Brookings Institution.

    Whatever this year's figure, it will easily surpass the 43 approved last year and the 49 confirmed in 2012. Majority Democrats enabled that in November 2013, when they muscled through a weakening of the Senate's rules on filibusters, the procedural delays that minority parties have long used to sink nominations and bills they dislike.
     
  5. DarkLight

    DarkLight Live Long and Prosper - On Hiatus

    I wonder what 'ol Harry Reid will say about the filibuster now that he's going to be the minority party. Okay, I lied, I just wonder how long it will take him to start his whining.
     
  6. Seawolf1090

    Seawolf1090 Retired Curmudgeonly IT Monkey Founding Member

    So this political hack position has been vacant for a year and a half, and nothing earth-shattering has happened because of it. What's wrong with letting it ride til we get an eligible American POTUSs seated? We haven't had a federal budget in over six years....... obviously many things in government are not necessary.
     
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