One of the many insanities that movement conservatives possess is their fervent belief that research exploring medical outcomes will lead to death panels. I have no idea how figuring out how to reduce medical errors or if one procedure yields better outcomes than another leads to state-run medical care. I would think insurers and doctors, not to mention patients, or in other words, you and I, would want to know this. Then again, this is the same base that fears light bulb vigilantes and smart electric meters.

Anyway, the slavering Republican Uruk-hai that make up the psychiatric wing of the Republican Party are attempting to despoil the Health and Human Services budget (boldface mine):

In the bill, which funds the labor, health and human services (HHS) and education departments and related agencies in 2013, the Republican-controlled subcommittee zeroes out the $405-million Agency for Health Care Research and Quality, which they see as Trojan horse for health-care rationing. The bill declares it “terminated” effective 1 October 2012.

“We cannot afford to zero out funding for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) at a time when it is addressing medical errors that kill more than 100,000 people a year and accelerating patient access to the best medical practices,” Mary Woolley, the president and chief executive of the advocacy group Research!America complained in a statement.

AHRQ will probably have its some of its funding restored by the Senate, but it will most likely receive less funding than it should–or than our health needs.

Movement conservatism, at this point, is not an ideology. It is a mass psychotic break from reality.