Over on the home page, I chat with Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky about his budget proposal.

An eye surgeon by trade, Paul plans to needle his GOP colleagues to get specific about where to take the scalpel. Senate Republicans, he sighs, agree that the budget needs balancing and that spending needs to be cut. “But many of them do not want to stand up and say where they would cut.”
“My fear is that a lot of those who are squawking are not fiscal conservatives,” Paul says. “My fear is that many are big-government conservatives. That’s sort of an oxymoron, I know, but they certainly exist.”
While it has little chance of passing in a Democratic-controlled chamber, the provocative Paul budget will force conversation. Its $500 billion in cuts is much higher than the $100 billion House Republicans have pledged to chop.
“People in official Washington think this a pretty bold, maybe overly bold, proposition,” Paul chuckles. “But it only cuts about a third of the annual deficit.”

For more, check out Paul’s maiden speech from Wednesday.