Sen. Toomey to oppose Obama's radical Surgeon General nominee

U.S. Senator Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) on Friday issued the following statement about Dr. Vivek Murthy, President Obama's nominee to be the Surgeon General.

"The Surgeon General is the most prominent government spokesperson on matters of public health and is responsible for overseeing more than 6,700 uniformed members of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.

"President Obama's nominee for the position, Dr. Vivek Murthy, has had a relatively short career in medicine that is rather lacking on public health issues for a position of this stature. Instead, Dr. Murthy, as the president of a partisan political organization, has been an active promoter of ObamaCare - a law that I believe is fundamentally wrong in its approach to improving our nation’s health care system. Dr. Murthy also has advocated for policies that would erode our important Second Amendment rights. For these reasons, I will oppose Dr. Murthy's nomination for Surgeon General."

Toomey recently led a successful bipartisan effort in the Senate to block another controversial Obama nominee  - a lawyer with ties to a convicted cop killer - for a key Justice Department position.