Ex-Surgeon General Complains of Political Interference
Dr. Richard Carmona has joined a growing list of federal officials who have said publicly that the Bush administration plays politics with science and health issues. But Carmona's complaints stand out -- he recently finished a four-year stint as the nation's surgeon general, and he was appointed by President Bush.
NPR's Julie Rovner reports that Carmona told the House Government Reform Committee on Tuesday that political interference has left the very position of surgeon general in 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."
The Washington Post reports, for instance, that "Carmona ... said he was told not to speak out during the national debate over whether the federal government should fund embryonic stem cell research." He also told the panel that his speeches were vetted and edited by political appointees. One rule was that Bush was supposed to be mentioned three times on every page.
White House spokesman Tony Fratto rejected the claims of interference, and the Department of Health and Human Services issued a written statement disagreeing with Carmona's testimony.
And Rovner's report notes that Virginia Rep. Tom Davis, the committee's senior Republican, said he had sympathy for Carmona's argument of political interference only to a point. "It's tough trying to define where you be a team player and where you speak out, and you try to balance that every day. But we have politicians who run the government, and not scientists," he said.
9:25 AM ET | 07-11-2007 | permalink
