Just got this in my email box:
FLORIDA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
EDUARDO GONZALEZ
REPRESENTATIVE, DISTRICT 102
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – February 27, 2008
Contact: Manny Cid
Phone: (305) 364-3066
E-Mail: Manny.Cid@myfloridahouse.gov
REPRESENTATIVE GONZALEZ FILES LEGISLATION TO PROHIBIT U.S. CITIZENS TRAINED BY THE CASTRO REGIME FROM PRACTICING IN FLORIDA
TALLAHASSEE – State Representative Eddy Gonzalez (R – Hialeah) filed legislation today to prohibit U.S. citizens or residents who travel to Cuba for medical training or a medical degree from undertaking medical residency, being licensed, or practicing in Florida.
“The idea that American students are receiving an education in Cuba at absolutely no cost is absurd,” said Representative Gonzalez. “No amount of so-called ‘free’ education is worth the cost of having America’s students exposed to Castro’s indoctrination machine.”
The legislation was filed partly in response to the Cuban regime’s latest attempts at currying favor with the international community and disengaged Americans through shallow publicity stunts. Theirs is a scheme to further manipulate public opinion in Castro’s favor and to export his failed ideology to the United States.
In May 2000, while addressing a group of visiting U.S. lawmakers, Castro offered to provide “free medical training” to 500 Americans. In August 2005, Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez addressed the first graduating class of doctors from Cuba’s Latin American School of Medicine.
“Despite the often repeated myth about Cuba’s ‘grand healthcare system,’ the truth is that Cuba is an utter failure, unless of course you are a foreigner paying for services in hard currency,” added Rep. Gonzalez. “Our students should not be contributing to Castro’s apartheid healthcare system, and those who turn a blind eye to such a basic human and civil rights abuses do not possess the basic judgment and character required for the ethical practice of medicine in Florida.”
This legislation would exempt Cuban natives or citizens if they received their medical training or medical degree prior to exile. Representative Gonzalez has made the passage of the Cuba Practice of Medicine Bill a priority issue for the 2008 Legislative Session.
I really didnt know what to say about this, but when I read the highlighted portion above, I have to say, it’s certainly something to think about.
First, do no harm.
Whats there to think about? Sounds great.
Wow! Honestly Val, I never would have expected this – I mean that in a positive way.
Holy smokes!
-AB
Is he going to include those who arrive from cuba with MD degrees, that have had 30+years of Communist indoctrination ?
How can one tell if the Natives are not cuban agents as well ???
Makes no sense to me.
seriously…how many people does this affect? Do we really need to be spending state money on this effort? Don’t we have more important things to worry about that some moron who goes to Cuba to get an MD? Let’s focus on the big picture, go after the big fish and fight for freedom. We’re losing perspective here…it just seems like political grandstanding and petty. It makes us look like a bunch of Batistiano retreads.
Ugh, as much as I appreciate the sentiment behind this bill, feel free to look up as many as you’d like of my bill analyses from when I worked for the House, desperately and repeatedly attempting (and usually failing) to get legislators to understand that an individual state simply can’t do this: it’s an attempt to engage in foreign policy, which is the sole prerogative of the federal government. Just one example here.