The American Spectator

Clint| 2.10.11 @ 5:28PM

"Senatorial courtesy be damned: Today, The Hill reports, that junior Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) is prepared to jettison senate tradition, tossing it aside, like dead weight, in his urgency to save America's financial ship from sinking. By so doing, Paul has steered a signature policy-making course strategically cornering senior senators with his push for a $500 billion spending cut, half a trillion dollars. In a fury over fiscal waters, Paul apparently doesn't intend to waste time negotiating with waves, but intends to lash himself to government's wheel.

This is what some consider "the new political style" in the manner of Chris Christie with shades of Ronald Reagan. No matter who in Washington gets ticked off, American voters want their representatives to do what the people sent them to Washington to do, get the job done.

Following is a transcribed summary, highlighting the the sequence of Paul's daring strategy, forging forward armed with a twelve page bill and casting tradition aside to light a fiscal fire under fellow GOP senators:

* Paul was first to go public pooh-poohing as "insufficient" a 2011 cut of only $32 billion from the federal budget, as proposed by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan.
* Paul pushed a proposal to slash $500 billion in federal spending over the course - in one year. GOP leaders at risk of appearing gutless in comparison, anted up with their own harder line.
* Though a bold move on Paul's part, within hours, a letter was released by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) which "urged the House Republican leadership to make spending cuts of no less than $100 billion for Fiscal Year 2011," after earlier joining Paul to Introduce REINS Act, designed to rein in federal government regulations that burden business and reduce jobs.
* Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) speaking to the conservative National Review Online on Monday said of Paul's Budget plan, including the $500 billion worth of Spending Cuts, "I think we could do it."

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Red Phillips | 2.10.11 @ 5:31PM

As I said, in RSM front page story, the real divide is not over the participation of GOProud. The real divide is between the old guard interventionists and the rising faction of non-interventionists.

These non-interventionists know we cannot get serious about cutting the budget unless we are willing to cut defense and scale back our commitments abroad. They also know that "American exceptionalism" is simply code for an American imperative to meddle. True exceptionalism would be demonstrated by an ability and willingness to go it alone.

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