Clinton insider is poised to operate as Surgeon General

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Nov 17, 1997 | by Lawrence Criner

One would think that a congressional hearing to consider President Clinton's nominee to replace Joycelyn Elders as U.S. surgeon general would be a particularly noteworthy event.

Not so! At least not for the Republicans sitting on the panel. Only two showed up at the recent nomination hearing lightheartedly to question physician David Satcher, the Clinton insider who runs the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, and the person selected to succeed Elders.

As both surgeon general and assistant secretary of health at the Department of Health and Human Services, Satcher, if confirmed, will have significant authority over public-health policy, including responsibility for the nation's abortion and family-planning programs -- ground zero in many of the battles that have divided the country for years.

No one thought to ask him anything about these sensitive hot-button issues. In the end, Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee Chairman Jim Jeffords of Vermont sat alone in the packed room tossing "softballs" like Sen. Ted Kennedy, the ranking committee Democrat.

It isn't as if Satcher doesn't have a controversial record; it's that none of it even came up.

Take the time in 1995 when Satcher lobbied Rep. Gary Ackerman, New York Democrat, to abandon a bill requiring the CDC to notify mothers whose babies tested HIV positive. The CDC for years secretly conducted HIV studies on newborns that resulted in thousands of infants being sent home from hospitals nationwide that the CDC knew were HIV positive. Parents never knew about the tests -- meaning many wouldn't learn the fatal news until their child fell sick from the disease, or worse.

Nat Hentoff of the Village Voice has speculated Satcher's motives were political. Satcher's visit to Capitol Hill was near reelection time and some in the administration were worried that the law might alienate their gay and pro-choice constituencies. So much for the fundamental notions of medicine!

Satcher's efforts failed. Ackerman's bill became law under the Ryan White Act of 1996. Yet, as recently as a few weeks ago the CDC revealed it wanted to restart its secret HIV tests on infants.

It doesn't end here, however. Satcher knows well the untold ways of the administration.

He was an active participant in Hillary Clinton's misguided attempt to nationalize the health-care system in 1993. Congress and the American people soundly rejected the grand design for a government-controlled system of care. But that didn't matter. The administration, taking its all-too-common we-are-the-people attitude, simply changed the rhetoric from socialized health care to "kid care" and shifted its lofty plan to the public schools.

Voila! Health reform became education reform. And the American people were never told about an elusive backdoor strategy to use the schools as a Trojan horse to devise a new healthcare system. Once the plan is complete, the nation's schools may look more like quasihospitals than places of learning, providing a comprehensive array of health and social services aimed at caring for the total child.

Satcher was on the secret White House Health Task Force when the Clintonesque scheme was conceived. Task-force papers kept in College Park, Md., portray the public schools as a "captive audience of children and youth for school-based clinic initiatives" that eventually will engulf everyone.

Is it merely coincidence that the CDC has forged "partners" agreements with 25 national organizations -- including groups such as the National Education Association, Council of Chief State School Officers the American Association of School Administrators, the National School Board Association, the Sexuality Information Education Council of the United States and many other powerful entities -- to build the "infrastructure" needed to support comprehensive health education in the public schools? Those involved in the secret White House meetings talked of using public and private organizations to develop "structures for transitioning to a new system."

It isn't clear, given the national scope of the projects now under way, that local educational autonomy can be safeguarded. Satcher has yet to provide an open accounting of the money the CDC already has given to these groups or to make available to the public copies of all program outlines and educational materials that have been produced at government expense.

One document found to have been funded by the CDC is a booklet titled Alone No More, which shows high-school teachers how to create positive learning opportunities for homosexuality in the classroom. Who knows what else might be in the works?

Curiously enough, the CDC, which manages Clinton's new get-tough AIDS policy, has taken the notable step of fostering what some may see as a pathological breakdown of society. Consider Project Fire, condoned by Satcher himself.

The "Great Ball of Fire" gala held last year in Newark, N.J., was touted as the social event of the year by the area's homosexual and transvestite community. The fanfare centered around a drag-queen fashion show replete with "butch" models parading up and down a runway in racy "Masculine vs. School Boy" attire, plus much more. It's part of a health initiative offered through Project Fire, which has received thousands of dollars from the CDC to cater to this minority group's special needs.