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If any U.S. senator ever deserved the term "maverick" it might actually be Rand Paul, not his colleague from Arizona. Another term that indisputably applies to the Tea Party Republican is "leader." Most junior senators make it to the U.S. Senate chamber for the first time and lie low, often for years, and go along with the party's agenda for the most part, build up some political capital, and then start to influence the process. Paul rode into Washington guns blazing from day one, drawing the

In a story that continues to get more bizarre as new details emerge, Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.), is recovering from 5 broken ribs after a neighbor assaulted him Friday afternoon while the Tea Party Republican leader was mowing his lawn in his gated community in Bowling Green, Kentucky. What was initially reported as "minor injuries" turned out to be far more severe. It emerged over the weekend that Paul had suffered five rib fractures in the assault, including three displaced fractures (where t

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8qMfoYsZcc On Monday, Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) took to Twitter to tell his 1.5 million followers that he's not happy with the tax reform plan published last week by the Trump Administration in partnership with congressional GOP leaders. The Kentucky Senator's criticism was prompted by a Tax Policy Center report which determined that many middle class taxpayers would see their taxes go up under the Republicans' plan: https://twitter.com/RandPaul/status/9149281

Is anything less immutable these days than a political party’s orthodoxy? We all like to mourn the death of compromise, but the truth is this: even the Republican and Democratic parties aren’t that far apart once everybody’s working from the same set of facts. One way or another, the following six political leaders broke with their party’s orthodoxy. Some wish to pursue real and lasting change in health care, while others were perhaps a little more cynical about their motivations. Whatever the

Don’t blink or you might miss it. While much of our attention, and that of Congress, is appropriately focused on hurricane recovery, the United States Senate this week is quietly taking up the National Defense Authorization Act that will set the Pentagon’s budget and programs for next year. There are some major issues in play, and those of us who are concerned about spending, foreign military interventions, surveillance, and transgender rights need to be paying attention. Waging Wars without

419-3. Three Republicans voted against a bill that, in part, provides $7.85 billion in emergency financial assistance to the victims of Hurricane Harvey. Michigan Rep. Justin Amash, Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, and Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs said no to the aid package. Minutes before the vote, Amash tweeted that funding for the disaster relief should be offset instead of being added to the deficit. https://twitter.com/justinamash/status/905465795416862720 Trump Sides with Democrats It’s alre

Congress returns Tuesday from their August recess to a packed legislative session. Number one on the agenda for the White House and Republicans on Capitol Hill is the ambitious goal of putting together a comprehensive tax reform bill and sending it to President Trump by October. The government will have to move forward on tax reform while managing several other legislative priorities, not the least of which is the federal debt ceiling, which the government will exceed by month's end. Technicall

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the Trump administration would be reversing the ban put in place by the Obama administration that halted the sale of certain surplus military equipment to local police departments. The two-year-old ban was in response to a string of racially motivated riots, the most widely publicized being that in Ferguson, Missouri. Sessions and the administration contend that the ban was a knee-jerk reaction that was overreaching, and the restoration of the prog

Congress is debating whether to repeal the Affordable Care Act or improve it, but there is a third option that has gained serious momentum. Americans are more supportive now of a single-payer type health care system than ever before. According to a recent Pew poll, 60% of Americans believe it is the government’s responsibility to provide health coverage to all Americans. Similarly, 60% of Americans now support expanding Medicare to cover all Americans, according to a June Quinnipiac poll. That

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9P15Ed05vI As GOP senators roll out their newest version of health care reform, a new Gallup poll shows U.S. adults are as divided as Congress on the government's best approach to reforms. The largest segment in the poll, 44 percent, want "significant changes" to the existing Affordable Care Act, but they want to keep it in place. According to the survey, 30 percent favor repealing and replacing the law, and 23 percent want to keep the ACA as it is. Gallup's J