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Rand Paul pledges support for Mitch McConnell a day after Trump's attacks Lexington Herald Leader U.S. Sen. Rand Paul said Mitch McConnell still has his full support a day after President Donald Trump vented his displeasure with the Senate majority leader several times. Paul, R-Bowling Green, said Trump directed his anger at the wrong person when ... Opinion: Republican Party at critical crossroadsHickory Daily Record Kaiser Health Tracking Poll August 2017: The Politics of ACA Repeal and Replace EffortsKaiser Family Foundation all 575 news articles »

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Rand Paul pledges support for Mitch McConnell a day after Trump's attacks - Lexington Herald Leader

Hemp farmers and processors in Murray presented progress and problems in growing the crop to U.S. Senator Rand Paul on Thursday. Paul is in the region as part of a tour discussing healthcare options and made a stop in Murray to talk hemp ahead of visits to other communities. Afterwords, he also commented on North Korea and health care reform options.

Joseph Kelly operates West Kentucky Hemp LLC. and works with Kentucky 21st Century Agri. He led much of the presentation, briefing Paul on some of their processes and procedures, ambitions and challenges. Kelly and others involved in hemp described its various uses: leaves (producing CBD), floor material (buds) for extracting oil, seeds (as grain and pressed for oil) and other uses involving the fiber.

Farmers say regulations are the 'biggest problem' and much of that has to do with its listing as a federally-controlled substance.

Paul said regulations and 'big government' need to 'get out of the way' of the country's burgeoning hemp industry. He expressed dismay when farmers told him hemp couldn't be used as livestock feed.

"I don't like the idea that we would have to ask somebody in Washington for permission to feed the root of the plant to a chicken or a cow. I think things that God gave us and that grow on Earth really the government shouldn't be preventing you from feeding them to your livestock," Paul said.

Farmers handed Paul a bag of edible hemp seeds for humans imported from Canada and suggested with fewer regulations similar products could be produced in Kentucky. Paul says hemp restrictions make the U.S. less competitive and will seek to address issues in the next farm bill.

Following-up, Joseph Kelly said he is glad to hear Paul involved in hemp and willing to take a look at legislation. He felt Paul's biggest takeaway was the livestock issue, which he said is personally important for his farm and company.

Other topics discussed include trials for herbicides and banking and insurance issues.

Kelly said a processing facility is under construction nearby. He's also looking to expand his hemp crop from 700 acres to 940 acres. Once the processor is up an running, he said, he'll be looking to hire. Describing both the growing acreage and new processing, Kelly emphasized the possibility for job growth in the commonwealth as this could naturally magnify elsewhere. Pointing to hemp's versatility as a crop, Paul also suggested that hemp could be viable in areas of Kentucky that might not be as agriculturally abundant.

"I think hemp has been a step towards a brand new product that has nothing to do with marijuana and has a lot of value as a new crop for us," Paul said.

More about the hemp industry in Kentucky.

North Korea

Senator Paul said both the United States and North Korea should ratchet down the rhetoric and find a peaceful solution.

Paul is referring to rhetoric "in general" and not specifically President Donald Trumps recent fire and fury comments.

Paul said politicians should assure the North Korean regime that there is no desire to occupy or invade their country. He says when people are fearful of invasion there is a danger of an accident occurring.

If I could do anything I would say lets try to ratchet down the rhetoric. Lets try to ratchet down the fear and the bellicosity on both sides. And see if we can get to a peaceful solution," he said.

He said North Korea should be reminded that the U.S. is allied with South Korea and should they unleash an attack it would be the last thing they ever do. He also said the U.S. isnt interested in a preemptive attack and that war should be a last resort.

Health Care

Senator Paul said President Donald Trump could act unilaterally on changes to the health care system. Paul is touring Kentucky discussing efforts to expand group insurance options across state lines. He said he recently spoke with President Trump to consider taking action without new legislation.

We talked about letting people join groups like co-ops or association health plans and I believe that he can act unilaterally through presidential authority to expand the definition," Paul said.

As an example, he said, the National Restaurant Association - of more than 40,000 members - could be legalized to form a group to buy insurance as one body and negotiate a discount in prices. Paul says he believes Trump is very interested in this option.

He said he is disappointed that politicians who promised to repeal the Affordable Care Act went back on their promise but is holding out hope for other options. Three Republicans broke ranks and voted against a proposed Skinny Repeal of the ACA last month.

A bill expanding association health plans passed the House and is now in the Senate.

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Rand Paul: 'Big Government' Needs to Back Off of Hemp - WKU Public Radio

By Joshua Roberts | The Paducah Sun

Sen. Rand Paul, appearing Thursday afternoon in Paducah, called for ratcheting down the rhetoric amid escalating threats of military action between the U.S. and North Korea.

A short time later, President Donald Trump followed his fire and fury comment from earlier in the week with a new warning to North Korea of trouble like few nations have ever been in trouble.

But Paul, the junior senator from Kentucky, said war between the nations would be devastating on the Korean Peninsula, putting the Korean War to shame. He hopes war is averted.

Even with conventional weapons a million people could die in two weeks, in South Korea probably, said Paul during a stop at Midwest Aviation at Barkley Airport. I think we need to realize the things we say about nuclear weapons should not be said frivolously.

North Korean leaders need to understand, he said and I think they do, I think most countries know if they attack South Korea or us, the consequences will be mind-numbing, Paul said. It will be the end of North Korea. They need to know that. Thats a deterrence.

And, he added, We dont want to goad them into anything. When people are not completely rational, you dont want to stoke their irrationality.

During his visit, which lasted about 45 minutes, Paul also talked to the media and a small crowd about other issues including health care and Americas growing crisis with opioids.

Concerning painkillers, the senator said there is no easy answer.

More people are dying from opioid overdoses than are dying from car accidents, he said.

We do have to figure it out. I think physicians and health care need to acknowledge they may have been part of the problem, and they still may be part of the problem.

Paul cited a small, poor county in Kentucky with a few thousand residents. There, he said, three million doses of oxycodone and hydrocodone had been prescribed.

Those are legal doses for a couple of thousand people, Paul said. Something is wrong with that. Some in the medical community admit that part of it is we are overprescribing.

Paul, who broke from party ranks to vote against the GOPs proposed health care overhaul, advocates stabilizing the individual insurance market by broadening group purchasing. He calls it collective bargaining for the consumer.

For example, he proposed allowing the roughly 15 million employees in the fast-food industry, many of whom arent covered, to buy group insurance through the National Restaurant Association.

My plan has always been to let people get out of the individual market, let them join associations, he said. It could be the National Restaurant Association, National Retail Association, it could be a variety of things.

I even mentioned Costco. There are 85 million people who belong to Costco why not let them buy their insurance through Costco?

There could be all kinds of solutions to level the equation when people are making a negotiation for their insurance. All the power now is with the insurance companies. Ask doctors. Ask nurses. Nobody has leverage. The insurer has all the power.

Before the Affordable Care Act, Paul said insurance companies made $6 billion per year in profit. After Obamacare, profits swelled to $15 billion per year, he said.

And they come to us with their hands outstretched, billionaire beseechers, where they want us to set up a system where they make even more money, Paul said.

The Republican leaderships plan would have provided a $280 billion bailout to insurance companies to offset adverse selection an insurance market top heavy with the sick and elderly, he said.

Im just absolutely against doing that, Paul said.

Giving associations group purchasing power would create leverage, he added, and bring competition back to many counties, many of which are down to one insurer, or in some cases, none at all.

Paul laid out his vision for healing the health care system.

The bottom line is if we want to fix health care, we have to have sufficient confidence in what made us a great country, he said. What made us a great country was basically we largely left you alone. The federal government didnt get involved in your business.

The rest is here:
Rand Paul wants to cool down the rhetoric - Insider Louisville

A recent Politifact fact checkfound that California Senator Kamala Harris statements arguing that it costs $33,000 a year nationally to incarcerate an inmate are in fact correct.

Harris told the incarcerated womens advocacy group Women Unshackled in Washington D.C. in July that it costs $75,000 a year to lock up an inmate in California.

Lets look at the fact that there is an issue around how much we are paying and again, this gets back to the economic cost it costs us about $33,000 a year to lock somebody up. In California it costs about $75,000 a year, Harris told the forum.

RELATED:Republican Senator Rand Paul and Democrat Kamala Harris are teaming up to seek bail reform

Harris, a Democrat, recently teamed up with Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., on bipartisan bail reform legislation toprevent accused minors from sitting in jail for their offenses if they cant afford bail.

An op-ed written by the senators targets the current discriminatory and wasteful bail system and its crippling effects on young offenders.

Our justice system was designed with a promise: to treat all people equally, the op-ed reads. Yet, that doesnt happen for many of the 450,000 Americans who sit in jail today awaiting trial because they cannot afford to pay bail.

The Senators argue that an accuseds jail time is often determined by their economic status or available connections.

Whether someone stays in jail or not is far too often determined by wealth or social connections, even though just a few days behind bars can cost people their job, home, custody of their children or their life.

Harris and Paul argue that bail reform could potentially save American taxpayers roughly $78 billion a year.

Politifact analyzed Harris figures and other reports and found her statistics to be correct.

We interpreted Harriss claim about per inmate expenses to mean the operational costs to house male and female inmates, including security, health care, facility upkeep and employee compensation, Politifact said. Advocates for criminal justice reform often argue that just looking at the operational costs of running prisons ignores the social costs of incarcerating Americans.

We looked at those costs as well, but based our rating primarily on the evidence supporting the numbers Harris cited in her Women Unshackled appearance.

RELATED:Congress can get rid of a lot of unconstitutional mass surveillance by doing nothing at all

A Vera Institute report examined the cost to house inmates at prisons nationwide. Data from 45 states found the total cost per inmate to be approximately $33,274 a year.

Additionally, a June 2017 article by the Associated Press estimates that it costs the state of California $75,560 per fiscal year to house an inmate. This number comes from funds Governor Jerry Brown set aside in the 2017 budget Californias Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Sen. Kamala Harris recently claimed it costs us about $33,000 a year (nationally) to lock somebody up In California it costs about $75,000 a year. A recent study that examined costs in 45 states plus data from Californias departments of corrections and finance support the senators statement. The evidence supports the figures she cited. We rate Harris claim True, Politifact concluded.

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Fiscal conservatives should support Rand Paul and Kamala Harris' bail reform bill - Rare.us

Tyler Eschberger | Daily News Sen. Rand Paul at Middlesboro ARH for a roundtable discussion concerning important healthcare issues.

Middlesboro ARH welcomed Sen. Rand Paul to a roundtable discussion concerning ways to improve and implement healthcare needs of the hospital and Bell County.

Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (FACHE) Community CEO Michael Slusher introduced Paul to the room of various physicians and hospital personnel and opened the floor for discussion on different market forces the hospital has found challenging.

MARH Chief Regulatory Affairs Officer Vicki Thompson was the first to address Paul regarding the patient population of the area.

Bell County ranks 115 out of 120 counties representing the overall health condition. Theres a lot of reasons for that. We have a higher rate of obesity, smokers. 38 percent of our counties lives below the poverty line; 52 percent of that being our children. And that is very distressing to all of us, she said.

Another problem we face here in Bell Countyour opioid crisis. We at one point from 2012 and 2015 were the second-ranked county for the worst overdose and overdose deaths here in Kentucky with heroin and narcotics being the main culprits.

Discussion of the shift from opioid addiction to heroin addiction was raised, with Paul asking if the medical community shared some guilt with having too many people on opioids to begin with.

Slusher stated that he didnt feel guilt was the right term, citing the pain is the fifth vital sign push as part of the problem with opioids.

Pharmacist Steve Weaver stated that the hospital is now using the drug Naloxone as a way to treat opioid dependence and overdose. The drug is prescription free. A protocol has been developed for dispensing Naloxone, he said. First responders, school workers and concerned family members are all able to receive the product with the proper education on the subject.

I think the drug company shares some blame in this too for saying Oxycontin is no big deal and its not really addictive and this a great drug for your patients, they wont get addicted to it. That may have been a lie, said Rand.

Paul went on to say that the spread of opioids was more rapid in areas of high Medicaid and high disability.

Disability you can understand, theyre taking medication for painin most of the counties that have expanded Medicaid they have a worse problem now because, again, more legal opioids because its free. We do need to think through what we can do to make it better, said Paul.

Reach Tyler Eschberger at 606-248-1010, ext. 1126 or on Twitter @TylerEsch89.

Tyler Eschberger | Daily News Sen. Rand Paul at Middlesboro ARH for a roundtable discussion concerning important healthcare issues.

http://www.harlandaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/web1_rand.jpgTyler Eschberger | Daily News Sen. Rand Paul at Middlesboro ARH for a roundtable discussion concerning important healthcare issues.

Discusses opioid issues

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Paul visits Middlesboro ARH - The Harlan Daily Enterprise