Rand Paul's ideas crash into reality

It's only June, but collisions between reality and the ideals of Republican Senate candidate Rand Paul are lighting up the sky like bottle rockets on the third of July.

There's the time that Paul, an eye doctor, wanted board certification but didn't like the new rules for earning it. So he created his own medical board. He's now certified by the National Board of Ophthalmology of which he's president, his wife is vice president and his father-in-law is secretary.

At the the junction of principle and pragmatism, Paul denounces big government and its costs and intrusiveness, but depends on the little things that big government does for him. Paul's campaign told reporter John Cheves that about half of his medical income comes from payments by Medicaid and Medicare, entitlement programs for the elderly, poor and disabled.

The state reports that Medicaid has paid Paul $130,461 since 2006. Federal policy blocks the release of such information about Medicare. The Paul campaign is refusing to say how much his medical practice earns from Medicare, except that it provides substantially more of his income than Medicaid.