The media fantasy of a dysfunctional Washington helps obscure who actually benefits from the way the capital works. (image: Fallout 3)
There’s no real reason to think that the US Surgeon General could do much to calm people’s irrational fears about Ebola. Nonetheless, the wall-to-wall coverage of Ebola on TV news has served as a reminder that the country does not currently have one, thanks to so-far successful efforts to block the nomination of Vivek Murthy. But explaining his nomination as a problem of “Washington dysfunction” misses the point.
That was nonetheless message you heard. On CBS‘s Face the Nation (10/19/14), viewers saw this exchange between host Bob Schieffer and Gerald Seib of the Wall Street Journal:
SCHIEFFER: It’s been a year now since the president nominated someone to be the surgeon general. That post is now being filled by an acting surgeon general. Tell me what this is all about, because I know this is a story that has about nine different sides to it here.
SEIB: Well, this is the other epidemic in Washington, the epidemic that you talked about, the inability to get anything done. It is rampant here. But this particular example had to do with, of all things, gun control and statements that the nominee had made about gun control.
So it’s gotten wrapped up in that issue, which seems wholly unrelated. It’s just one of a long list of appointments that have not been approved by a Senate that just does not work very well. So if you are looking for Congress to step into the breach here and do something about any crisis, you are probably looking in the wrong place right now.
A similar conversation was taking place on NBC‘s Meet the Press (10/19/14) between host Chuck Todd and Sen. Bob Casey (D-Penn.).
TODD: Senator Casey, why don’t we have a surgeon general confirmed? Dr. Vivek Murthy was nominated over a year ago.
CASEY: It’s Washington dysfunction, Chuck. It’s as simple as that. We should have one in place.
Vivek Murthy is not surgeon general because Washington works–for the gun lobby.
But what does that mean, exactly? Todd, to his credit, spent a little more time trying to explain that the National Rifle Association was responsible for the fate of Murthy’s nomination. He has talked about guns as a public health issue–which they are, killing about 32,000 times as many people in the United States in a typical year as Ebola has in total so far.
But that didn’t sit well with the NRA, which let it be known that it would “score” a possible vote, meaning that it would count towards the letter grade the group assigns to members of Congress. That all but assured Republican opposition; Sen. Rand Paul accordingly placed a hold on Murthy’s nomination (Think Progress, 2/26/14). There are a few Democrats who apparently feel the same way, or at least do not wish to cross the NRA in an election year, so the process remains more or less frozen.
But that’s not exactly “dysfunction.” The process is functioning quite smoothly for the NRA, which has enormous power in Washington. This bolsters Republican power in the Senate. If you’re going to talk about what’s happening in Congress, it makes more sense to say who’s doing what, instead of talking about Congress as a place where things don’t get “done.”
Thank you, Peter, Bob & Todd! We Americans are shutdown. For 90 % of us across the USA, we seldom discuss the “NRA”. This sort of discussion would end-up in a serious fight; perhaps causing people fired from work, injured or killed. Where are the “Spiritual Leaders”? Did Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, Allah, The Creator, The SPIRIT, Buddha or Confucius injure or kill or shoot a spear/gun? Ministers, Pastors, Priests, Bishops, Rabbis, Senators & Representatives of the USA & each STATE……DO NOTHING TO CHALLENGE the NRA. We are prisoners of our own homes and lives.
The Washington DC Axis of Evil seems to be in charge of our country with the complicity of the corporate mainstream media.
Thank you for the article. And I think this is a very fruitful line of thinking: pro-active, can we identify and document how “Washington is Working”, in terms of creating legislation that serves special interests?
Vivek Murthy is an anti-gun administration figurehead and not much of a doctor who will use the fiction of guns creating a “health problem” as a tool to accomplish national disarmament. The problem is the laws and regulations never seem to disarm criminals, gang-bangers or sickos.
“” Vivek Murthy is an anti-gun administration figurehead and not much of a doctor who will use the fiction of guns creating a “health problem” as a tool to accomplish national disarmament. The problem is the laws and regulations never seem to disarm criminals, gang-bangers or sickos. “”
Must be nice to live in your own world. How about coming out once in awhile and looking around, instead of relying on Limburger & Company at FOX to tell you how to talk. As always, your entitled to your own opinions, not your own facts.
Here’s an Idea, maybe if we didn’t have enough guns for every man, woman and child in the U.S. (seems around 300 million) we wouldn’t have millions of them being stolen every year and used in crimes, and we would have thousand of ‘accidents’ because the average person has about as much ‘control’ over their guns and ammo, as pig has experience flying a 747.
If only there were some kind of gun trafficking legislation introduced that would prevent unregistered guns from lax states and gun shows from ending up in criminal hands. I wonder which lobby would oppose that?
@ Jason – the ones backed by the uber-right, N.R.A. as opposed to those those who are simply uber-right. They have the idea that if you make it illegal for one weapon (even if it make little to no sense) then eeryone must be banned from having anything.
The fourth and fifth amendment kill and subject more non criminals to violence than the second. Shall we have a surgeon general who makes it his mission to push new restrictions on the fourth and fifth?
Your 32,000 number, according to the June CDC reporting is 21,000 suicides. A dozen studies indicate the elvation from that is between 0.6% and 1.4%, in other words if all guns were removed form society 20,800 of those would still occur by other means.
Actual elevated suicide nationally from the presence of guns: 200
Homicide victims not engaged in crime or gang activity when killed: 860
Accidental deaths: 840 (lower than bikes, pools going to the beach)
In fact unless you are a gang member of criminal you are SAFER from murder in the USA than in Canada.
And the NJ study found of the past 200 deaths home violence victimization, 197 were in homes of gun owners who were actually active criminals, felons or gang members. In fact if you are not a felon, gang member or criminal owning a gun makes your home about 12% SAFER from violence than unarmed homes
I’m curious to see some stats showing all these people “killed” by the 4th and 5th Amendments.
US casualties at the hands of ebola: 2. US annual casualties directly attributable to gun violence: 32,000. Which story is the corporate media reporting? Bob Schieffer is a corporate capitlist stooge pig capitalist stenographer for the ruling elite. Or in four words: a Paul Gobbels doppelganger. The bi-partisan divide in Congress is pure illusion. Congress is getting exactly done what needs to be done: legislating for Wall Street. Dr. Stockman, of all the spiritual entities, you left out Mr. Masturbor. Why is that? Right Bob Walton, a*******. Guns kill 32,000 Americans – north of the border, not south. Who could imagine such a crisis as a public health problem? This whole discussion is pure absurdity. Let’s bring some philosophy, literally love of wisdom to bear, shall we? Kahlil Gibran: “better to me the murdered than the murderer.” Why should it be a big surprise when the political elite refer to the fiction of “gangbangers” solving their problems with mindless violence? They’re only following the example of their great Uncle Sam, the biggest purveyor of violence on the planet. Speaking of philosophy, let’s cite Lynyrd Skynyrd on the subject: Hand guns are made for killin’/They ain’t no good for nothin’ else/And if you like to drink your whiskey,/You might even shoot yourself