Rand Paul: Cut Defence Dept by 9%, State Dept budget by 125%, Indian Affairs by 100%

[ichy]

Rand Paul was not named for Ayn Rand. But the important thing is, he 'has read and very much likes all her novels'. They're both advocates for disastrous ideology.

I've always wondered how conservative Republicans can proclaim their love for Ayn Rand while ignoring her strident Atheism.

 

[lothar]

As long as the supply of physicians is artificially limited by the government. (Government controls the licensing of physicians) you can't just lower the price to whatever level you want, it creates shortages, its basic economics.

What an idiotic assumption.
Government controls licensing of pharmacists as well, but yet there are no shortages of them.
If anything, there's an oversupply of them due to the ~30 new degree mill schools opened within the past 10 years.

 

[matt0611]

What an idiotic assumption.
Government controls licensing of pharmacists as well, but yet there are no shortages of them.
If anything, there's an oversupply of them due to the ~30 new degree mill schools opened within the past 10 years.

I didn't say that anything government is controlling the licensing of would cause this. But in this case it is. Its really simple logic, government only lets people with AMA accreditation practice and the AMA is artificially keeping the supplies of doctors down. What is so hard to understand about this?

Negative. AMA Fail can be argued though.

You still don't get it. AMA is failing us (they are doing great things for doctors salaries though) and government is letting them do this to us.

If I wanted to start a new top notch medical school and hired great doctors to teach and accepted well deserving applicants and the AMA would not approve this, these doctors that graduated from my school could NOT practice because the government would NOT allow it.

 

[ichy]

I didn't say that anything government is controlling the licensing of would cause this. But in this case it is. Its really simple logic, government only lets people with AMA accreditation practice and the AMA is artificially keeping the supplies of doctors down. What is so hard to understand about this?

You don't know what you're talking about.

There is no "AMA accreditation," and you don't have to go to an American med school to practice medicine in the US. What you DO have to do is train at an American residency program. Residency slots are largely limited by funding from CMS (Medicaid/Medicare). The AMA is a lobbying group for physicians, they don't control training or licensing.

Also, physician's salaries are disconnected from supply and demand (why do you think primary care reimbursement sucks, yet at the same time there's a shortage of primary care physicians?) so there's no financial incentive for the AMA to limit the supply of doctors.

 

[matt0611]

You don't know what you're talking about.

There is no "AMA accreditation," and you don't have to go to an American med school to practice medicine in the US. What you DO have to do is train at an American residency program. Residency slots are largely limited by funding from CMS (Medicaid/Medicare). The AMA is a lobbying group for physicians, they don't control training or licensing.

Also, physician's salaries are disconnected from supply and demand (why do you think primary care reimbursement sucks, yet at the same time there's a shortage of primary care physicians?) so there's no financial incentive for the AMA to limit the supply of doctors.

Fine, explain to me why there is not a larger supply of doctors, theres obviously people who want to be doctors, and we obviously need them.

 

[ichy]

Fine, explain to me why there is not a larger supply of doctors, theres obviously people who want to be doctors, and we obviously need them.

Like I said, residency training is the bottleneck. Part of that is due to the fact that CMS funding for post-graduate medical education has remained flat for the past ten years. There's also the issue that you can't just open a new residency program the same way you'd open up a McDonalds franchise. It takes years of preparation, investment, and recruiting of qualified personnel, and if a hospital isn't going to get subsidies from CMS then they're not going to open a residency program unless they're damned sure it can pay for itself.

One area where doctors are trying to limit competition is with restrictions on mid-level practitioners (NPs, PAs, CRNAs in the case of anesthesia.) While we do need to increase the supply of doctors we also need to take a rational look at what kind of care can be delivered by NPs/PAs rather than MDs. Sure their training is nowhere near as thorough, but you don't need four years of med school plus three or more years of residency to treat strep throat, ankle sprains and other minor issieus, or perform physicals, pap smears, etc.

 

[matt0611]

Like I said, residency training is the bottleneck. Part of that is due to the fact that CMS funding for post-graduate medical education has remained flat for the past ten years. There's also the issue that you can't just open a new residency program the same way you'd open up a McDonalds franchise. It takes years of preparation, investment, and recruiting of qualified personnel, and if a hospital isn't going to get subsidies from CMS then they're not going to open a residency program unless they're damned sure it can pay for itself.

One area where doctors are trying to limit competition is with restrictions on mid-level practitioners (NPs, PAs, CRNAs in the case of anesthesia.) While we do need to increase the supply of doctors we also need to take a rational look at what kind of care can be delivered by NPs/PAs rather than MDs. Sure their training is nowhere near as thorough, but you don't need four years of med school plus three or more years of residency to treat strep throat, ankle sprains and other minor issieus, or perform physicals, pap smears, etc.

Don't residency programs need to be approved by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education? (which the AMA has a lot of control over)

 

[Craig234]

I've always wondered how conservative Republicans can proclaim their love for Ayn Rand while ignoring her strident Atheism.

There are libertarian Republicans, and there are fundamentalist Christian Republicans, for two main types, and they are in bed together to have a chance to win elections.

Like Germany and Japan in WWII, they are just using each other and try not to step on each others' toes too much, but if they ever had real power, they'd conflict.

Libertarians turn a blind eye to the Terry Schiavo pandering, and fundamentalist Christians turn a blind eye to corporatist corruption.

They may not like each other much, but they recognize that they are each in a clear minority, and in our system that means zero power if they aren't elected.

So we get some bizarre opportunists, panderers, con men, and passionate true believers who are the leaders of this marriage.

An example of the 'true believer' is Rand or Ron Paul, an example of the con man is Tom DeLay (or operatives like Jack Abramoff), or there are just some odd birds like the weepy John Boehner who seems a bit of several of these types.

 

[piasabird]

I think that cutting funding for native tribes by 100% is like asking for a crime spree. It also affects mostly just two states in a big way. Oklahoma and Alaska have a high tribal population.

 

[piasabird]

Physicians are licensed by the State, not the federal government.

 

[ichy]

Physicians are licensed by the State, not the federal government.

Yes, but licensing isn't the bottleneck. Residency training is, and the number of residency slots are limited by a number of factors.

 

[LegendKiller]

And then he backtracked and said he was more 'moderate' on the issue.

Also,



http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2010/05/14/rand-paul-cut-spending-but-not-medicare-doctor-payments/

Looking out for his own, LOL.

Of course Spidey is for a guy who looks out for his own. Spidey is the one who admits his wife makes a shit-ton of money and she's a government worker. He doesn't give a flying fuck through a rolling donut about WE THE PEOPLE when it comes to his livelihood. At that he's perfectly willing to let WE THE PEOPLE pay his way.

He's got to "get his", fuck everybody else. Goddamn hypocrites.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Like father, like son. Two morons voted in by morons.

 

[zinfamous]

assuming your title is accurate, how do you cut a budget by 125%?

it's like LCDs and their 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio; only to be outdone by the competitor's 10,000,000: contrast ratio.

Numbers are Fun and they look good on a Box!!

 

[nyker96]

nice! by cutting 125% we actually make an extra 25%!!! Rand makes money by just cutting!