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Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Feb. 8 opposed a bipartisan budget deal and delayed a vote on the measure in the Senate, calling the GOP "complicit in the deficits." (U.S. Senate)

The latest politico pointing out just how much the Republican Party has changed under President Trump comes from the inside.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) delayed a Senate vote past midnight Thursday to mark his opposition to an estimated $320 billion addition to the federal budget deficit something he called Republicans out for supporting: If you were against President Obama's deficits, and now you're for the Republican deficits, isn't that the very definition of hypocrisy?

Paul, known for his libertarian leanings, said the budget deal breaks past Republican pledges to rein in federal spending.

After GOP leaders refused to allow Paul to offer an amendment, he chose to use a Senate rule that allows individual senators to slow down proceedings that require the consent of all.

I cant in all good honesty, in all good faith, just look the other way because my party is now complicit in the deficits, he said on the Senate floor.

[The Daily 202: Rand Paul's short-lived shutdown is ending, but his warning about GOP deficit hypocrisy reverberates]

Paul ran against Trump in the 2016 presidential primary, drawing attention to the presidents multiple bankruptcies as proof of his lack of a commitmentto fiscal conservatism. When Trump pulled out of a January 2016 Fox News debate becausethe network declined his request to remove Megyn Kelly as moderator,Paul claimed that Trump might be backing away because the former Democrat isnt a conservative.

He told CNNs Alisyn Camerota: Maybe [he's] afraid of the fact that he's never voted in a Republican presidential primary. For 70 years, he's been a progressive Democrat. I was wondering if maybe he's going to show up for the Democrat primary debate next time.

I think he does want to avoid difficult questions. And I think he's used to getting his way, Paul added.

Paul has since been seen buddying up with Trump on the golf course. But his strongest words late into the night Thursday were for his fellow party members who attacked President Barack Obama for increased government spending but are now are rallying behind a similar idea just because it's championed by Republican lawmakers.

Paul said: I ran for office because I was very critical of President Obama's trillion-dollar deficits. Now we have Republicans hand in hand with Democrats offering us trillion-dollar deficits. I can't in all honesty look the other way.

Congress ended a five-hour government shutdown early Friday morning after the House supported a massive bipartisan budget deal that adds hundreds of billions of dollars in federal spending. The funds will go to the military, domestic programs and disaster relief.

Trump signed the bill into law Friday morning.

Under Trump, fiscally conservative lawmakers supported increased government spending.

Under Trump, the Republican National Committee backed a candidate in Alabama accused of sexual misconduct with teenage girls while in his 30s.

Under Trump, Christian conservatives have defended a thrice-married man against allegations that his lawyer paid a six-figure settlement to a porn actress who reportedly had an affair with the president not long after his wife gave birth to their son.

Under Trump, multiple veterans have backed a candidate with multiple draft deferments who as president has invoked the military while attacking other Americans who took a knee during the national anthem to protest racism and police violence.

Under Trump, Republicans who criticized the influence of high-spending donors in politics have gone silent as the billionaire president's private club hosts political fundraisers with tickets starting at $100,000.

Former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman told the New York Times that people like her who boarded the Trump train called themselves Trumpublicans due to his unorthodox and unconventional approach to politics that seemed to have no place in the Democratic Party or the GOP.

But more than a year after Trumps inauguration, it is clear that his politics have found a home in the GOP. The majority of Republicans continue to give him high approval ratings despite scandals dominating headlines nearly every week. They point to the decisions that reflect a relatively traditional Republican presidency as reasons for their high support.

But a sizable group of Never Trump Republicans remains vocal and critical of his presidency. And it is not clear where these conservatives can go, given that Trumpism is becoming more of the dominant worldview of the GOP.

Paul is likely to continue to draw attention to what he sees as hypocrisies in the Republican Party, but the likelihood of conservative lawmakers pivoting away to the traditional vision of conservatism is low. The truth is conservative voters had a chance to choose between Paul and Trumps visions for America during the GOP primaries. The GOP chose Trump.

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A military parade in the nations capital?The last military parade in Washington was in 1991, after our victory in the first Iraq War.

Though the martial image of high-stepping soldiers is not one I tend to associate with our nations Founders distrust of a standing Army, Im not against a victory celebration. So I propose we declare victory in Afghanistan, bring home our 14,000 troops and hold a victory parade.

We defeated the enemy in Afghanistan. We killed or captured the terrorists who planned, plotted, or aided in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. We killed the ringleader, Usama bin Laden. We disrupted the terrorists camps where they plotted and trained. We dislodged the Taliban government that aided and abetted bin Laden.

We just dont know how to appreciate a good thing. A big part of our foreign policy failures is not knowing when and how to declare victory. So, why not a parade? Bring the troops home and declare the victory that should have been declared years ago.

The only reason victory is elusive in Afghanistan is that presidents continue to have an impossible definition of victory. If victory is creating a nation where no real nation has ever existed, then no victory will ever occur.

If victory requires the disparate tribes and regional factions of Afghanistan to have more allegiance to a regime in Kabul than to their local tribal leaders, then victory will never come.

We spend about $50 billion a year in Afghanistan. When quizzed in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee recently, undersecretaries of Defense and State could not answer the most rudimentary of questions concerning the war.

How many Taliban fighters do we face?Blank faces for an answer. What percentage of the Taliban are unrepentant terrorists unwilling to negotiate?Blank faces again.

The Taliban now control a significant amount of Afghanistans real estate. Are the Taliban open to negotiating, considering that they appear to be winning? Blank faces again, but with perhaps a touch of remorse, knowing that there really is no possible military solution in Afghanistan.

The neocons are unaccustomed to nuance in victory. They seem to have learned some lesson about unconditional and total surrender when America dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II with the surrender of Japan, and they seem unwilling or unable to accept any other form of victory.

So, by all means, a parade yes! As long as it is a victory parade heralding an end to Americas longest war.

Republican Rand Paul represents Kentucky in the United States Senate.

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Sen. Rand Paul: Bring home our troops and, yes, throw a ...

Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky who recently was attacked by a neighbor while working on his lawn, said he believes the anger and polarization around the country fueled the assault.

Somebody who is going to attack you has to have something else wrong other than your yard, he said.

With the whole idea of the country being angry, over your yard or even the guy that shot us in the ball field There's just some people so angry, said the senator, who was on a baseball field over the summer when a gunman shot Rep. Steve Scalise, R-LA, and three others.

The neighbor, 58-year-old Rene A. Boucher of Bowling Green, Kentucky, admitted to the assault, but denied accusations that it may have been politically motivated, according to court documents. Boucher was charged with assaulting a member of Congress resulting in personal injury, a felony under federal law, the documents say.

I didn't know how badly I was hurt in the beginning, Paul said of the injury. To describe how much it hurt, I couldn't sit up. I had to have help to sit up for the first four or five weeks, he said. Who knew you had to have armed protection to mow your yard?"

He was wearing hearing protection when he was attacked from behind, he said. The attack ultimately left him with five broken ribs, three of which will heal in a crooked fashion.

Paul also discussed news of day with the co-hosts, including the release of a Republican memo accusing the Department of Justice of political bias. Paul appeared just minutes before the memo was posted online by the House Intelligence Committee but voiced his support for its release.

If you look at my position, I had the same position under President Obama that I have under President Trump and that is the power to listen to people's conversation, your private conversations are private and nobody else's business and the government should not reveal that, Paul said, prior to the memo's release.

The memo was first drafted by the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif, amd is critical of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein for his role in renewing a surveillance warrant on former Trump campaign aide Carter Page after Trump took office.

The president approved its release on Friday, despite a statement Wednesday in which the FBI expressed "grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo's accuracy."

Paul falls on the side of privacy advocates, he said, and is worried about information getting into the wrong hands.

The worrisome thing is the government has all of your information. Do you want them releasing it willy-nilly against their enemies? he said. And think who the enemies are. They're people who are minorities of opinion, minorities of color. People who have a lifestyle that other people think is unacceptable. Do you want the government or the majority to be able to selectively target their enemies?

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Mark Seliger for TIME

When the Tea Party movement wanted to send a message to the Senate in 2010, it elected a clear-sighted eye doctor from the Bluegrass State. In a D.C. too often defined by the venal equivocations of a permanent political class more interested in consolidating its own power than in upholding the Constitution or defending the common good, Senator Rand Paul is a voice of reason awakening the public to what must be done to restore our prosperity and preserve the blessings of liberty for future generations. His brand of libertarian-leaning conservatism attracts young voters, and recently he inspired the nation with his Capraesque filibuster demanding basic answers about our use of drones. I sent him some caribou jerky from Alaska to help keep up his strength on the Senate floor. Theres more where that came from for this bold Senator with 20/20 vision willing to take a stand for liberty.

Palin is a former governor of Alaska

Next Noynoy Aquino

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Rand Paul | TIME 100: The 100 Most Influential People in ...

Authorities in Kentucky released audio of Sen. Rand Paul's 911 call Monday, in which the Republican reported that he "was assaulted by my neighbor" this past November.

Paul, who can be heard breathing heavily on the audio, tells the dispatcher that the incident is "not a life-or-death thing, but I'd like to have a police car come by." He gives his full name, Randal Paul, when asked by a second dispatcher and tells her that he was attacked "in my yard, while I was mowing the grass."

The audio was made public on the same day it was revealed that federal prosecutors would seek a 21-month prison sentence for the man accused of attacking Paul outside his Bowling Green, Ky., home Nov. 3.

In comments to police, Rene Boucher indicated the attack on Paul was not politically motivated, according to a court document filed by prosecutors. Instead, it had to do with a dispute over yard maintenance that boiled over.

Boucher said he saw Paul stacking more brush onto an existing pile and had "had enough." Boucher made a "running tackle" of Paul in the lawmaker's yard, it said.

The document said Paul "did not see the attack coming until the last second, and was unable to brace for the impact."

Rene Boucher told authorities he had 'had enough' after Paul stacked brush onto an existing pile.(AP)

Paul suffered several broken ribs in the attack and later developed pneumonia. Paul has since said he's recovering well from the attack.

Boucher has been charged with assaulting a member of Congress as part of a federal plea agreement that surfaced last Friday.

While federal prosecutors will recommend a nearly two-year prison sentence, Boucher's attorney said Monday he will argue that his client should not serve any jail time. Attorney Matt Baker said his client is "a good and a decent person" who made a "big mistake."

"Everyone needs to remember, first and foremost, that this is a dispute between two neighbors," Baker told the Associated Press in a phone interview. "It was not and has never been politically motivated. And if this very same incident had occurred between two private persons, neither of whom were a congressman or a senator, we wouldn't be in federal court."

Boucher is "very meticulous" about how he maintains his yard, while Paul takes "a much different approach" to the upkeep of his property, Baker said last week.

The federal charge against Boucher carries a punishment of up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The plea deal also raises the prospect that Boucher a retired anesthesiologist in his late 50s will pay restitution to Paul.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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