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Former Surgeon General Was Muzzled, Censored by the Bush Administration
July 11, 2007 |
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This post, written by Amanda Terkel, originally appeared on Think Progress
Richard Carmona served as President Bush's first Surgeon General from 2002-2006. Today he spoke before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and revealed that political appointees in the Bush administration muzzled him on key issues such as "stem cell research, contraceptives and his misgivings about the administration's embrace of 'abstinence-only' sex education":
[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.Watch it part of Carmona's testimony in the video to your right.
Amanda Terkel is Associate Editor for The Progress Report and ThinkProgress.org at the Center for American Progress.
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