Talk:Rand Paul/Archive 1

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Christmas letter

I am using Ron Paul's Christmas 2008 booklet-letter, which went out to myriads of people, as a self-published source for this article. Quoting the relevant portion for verifiability:

The Kentucky Pauls have had a busy year campaigning for Ron. Rand has enjoyed traveling across the country campaigning and giving speeches from Montana to Massachusetts. He took sons Duncan (12) and Robert (9) to South Carolina to see the Ron Paul Blimp during the primary. Son William (15) gave a great introduction for his grandfather when Ron spoke at his high school in May. On December 1, Rand celebrated the one-year anniversary of his new solo ophthalmology practice, which he has really enjoyed. Kelley is in charge of the payroll and marketing communications for the practice. William (15) plays baseball for the Bowling Green High Purples and is an honor student. Duncan (12) plays basketball and soccer for his middle school team, plays guitar and enjoys creating websites and YouTube videos. He made several great videos about Ron Paul during the campaign! Robert (9) is enjoying his first year on his school Academic Team and also plays basketball, soccer, baseball and guitar.

JJB 05:02, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

J Am Phys Surg

I also am using the following journal article as a source and wanted the relevant text to be available:

As an active ophthalmologist, I agree with Dr. Gervais (1) that fee splitting encourages unnecessary cataract surgery and thus increases the taxpayer burden. To my knowledge, Medicare does not split postoperative fees for any other surgery. In fact, it is probably illegal for a general surgeon to try to give the family doctor part of his fee to take care of a patient after an appendectomy. Good decision-making about cataract surgery requires an ethical ophthalmologist. About once every month or two we see a patient, already scheduled for cataract surgery elsewhere, who has no cataract, 20/20 vision, or no visual complaints with minimal if any cataract. Eliminating the Medicare provision that allows fee splitting for post-operative care would lessen abuse but true reform also would require an infusion of ethics, something that can't be taught or purchased. Rand Paul, M.D. Bowling Green, Ky. (1) Gervais RR The optometric-ophthalmic kickback scheme: the demise of American eye medicine. J Am Phys Surg 2006;11: 120-121.

JJB 02:50, 5 April 2009 (UTC)

More sources

I am now going to stop expanding the article with what another editor calls the "bicycle pump" but what is really just a plethora of reliable sources. Just wanted to post a couple more links for future reference. Obviously I still haven't scratched the surface of the Senate run or much of the presidential campaign involvement, and links on those are easy to find. However I did note that this search had some additional interesting out-of-the-way articles not noted by Google, with possible additional biographical detail, and particularly Paul's political positions can be expanded somewhat by reference to his published editorials, such as [1] [2] [3] [4]. Looking forward to maintaining this article as the various campaigns take shape. JJB 05:42, 5 April 2009 (UTC)

Paul's Plans for 2010 Senate Race

I just listened (via podcast) for the third time to the May 14th Rachel Maddow show segment with Rand Paul and I'm still not clear that he's committed to dropping out of this race if sitting Senator Jim Bunning actually runs for re-election. I don't plan to change the article, but this needs to be watched closely. Frazzle (talk) 17:06, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Libertarian Bias

he was supported by Ron during these years, avoiding participation in federal student loans because the program was taxpayer-subsidized.

Does anyone else see this as a bit biased towards libertarians? It certainly can be written more neutral or perhaps it deserves removal because it isn't really relevant to the biography.--Metallurgist (talk) 15:59, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

I do not know if it should be included, but it is written without bias. Who was he supported by? Ron. When? During these years. Why? To avoid participation in federal student loans. Why did he avoid such partipation? Because the program was taxpayer subsidized. Even if this last reason were counter-factual, the sentence would be fairly okay since the reason is clearly his reason, not a Wikipedia-inserted reason. And, the fact is, aren't federal student loans taxpayer subsidized? —Centrx→talk • 04:04, 17 May 2009 (UTC)

Actually, given Ron's position that giving people money for education is a good thing (a significant percent of his bills are written for that purpose), the whole thing sounds like political pandering. Considering that the primary source for the statement (The American Conservative) is hardly a reliable source it can probably be removed. Burzmali (talk) 15:44, 18 May 2009 (UTC)

Just because it is true does not mean it is encyclopediac. It is akin to, if not, weasel wording. It is a very veiled swipe at taxpayer-funded education. Metallurgist (talk) 03:42, 23 May 2009 (UTC)

I agree (though I'm late to the party). It is not necessary to state why he says he didn't take financial aid. The purpose of the article is general knowledge and the statement slips into promotion. Njsamizdat (talk) 00:22, 9 August 2009 (UTC)

Is Paul a libertarian?

If Paul is a libertarian, and opposes taxpayer funding of higher education, then his refusal to accept student loans, and the reason for it, is relevant in order to allow readers to evaluate his consistency on the issues. If there is evidence that he in fact did receive tax money, or that he is not opposed to doing so as a matter of principle, then that too should be sourced and included. 69.42.7.98 (talk) 20:59, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

It's questionable: http://www.randpaul2010.com/2009/11/rand-paul-try-convict-and-lock-up-terrorists-in-guantanamo/ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 137.254.4.8 (talk) 20:11, 25 November 2009 (UTC)

First name spelling is indeed "Randal"

He says as much in this video: http://www.randpaul2010.com/video/2009/may/whats-name-rand-rand -- RayBirks (talk) 02:12, 22 May 2009 (UTC)