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If he reaches the Oval Office, Paul, who announced his presidential candidacy Tuesday, wants to reel in government spending, taxes and regulation. He would like to increase America's energy production and put more oversight on the Federal Reserve.

While many details of the Kentucky senator's plans need to be fleshed out, here are four key points of "Paulonomics" that we know so far:

1. An energy-focused economy: Drill baby drill.

Paul wants the U.S. economy to run on American gas, oil and coal. His budget plan -- arguably a presidential manifesto -- calls for more government-owned land to be open for drilling. Perhaps not surprising for a senator from a coal-heavy state, Paul says America should return its focus to coal energy.

Paul is a big advocate for the Keystone XL Pipeline, which he says will create jobs and enhance America's energy independence.

Paul's energy economy will face major questions during the election. Oil prices have tumbled from $100 a barrel to about $50. There's an oil oversupply in the world, and U.S. energy companies have laid off 30,000 workers this year, according to the Labor Department.

It's uncertain how Paul's energy economy would stack up against the industry's tough reality right now.

Related: The Ted Cruz economy: Reality-checking his talking points

2. Federal spending slide: Paul wants to eliminate the U.S. departments of education, commerce, housing and energy (that would cut a quarter of the president's cabinet secretaries). He would reduce government payments on food stamps, Medicaid and child nutrition programs too. Paul argues that many welfare programs waste money.

These cuts are meant to eliminate the U.S. government's deficit and return power to state governments. It's unclear how easily Paul could shave off four departments and decrease America's welfare programs. The four departments he wants to get rid of are also small spenders compared to defense, Social Security and Medicare

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Rand Paul-onomics: 4 things to know

He also wants to simplify the tax code, eliminate the estate and gift taxes and wipe out investment taxes too.

And he wants to do it by way of a "flat tax."

"As President, I would promote a Fair and Flat Tax plan, known as the 'EZ Tax.' My tax plan would be the largest tax cut in American history, reforming individual, business, and worker taxes," the Libertarian-leaning senator from Kentucky wrote on his new 2016 campaign Web site.

Related: Rand Paul: 'I am running for president'

The big idea behind a flat tax: Move from an income tax system with many rates to one single rate. Kill all but a few tax breaks. And make all investment income tax free. Generally, the goal is to only tax money once: either when it's earned or when it's withdrawn after being deposited or invested.

Not all flat-tax proposals are alike, however. They can differ in how high they set the rate; how big of an income tax exemption they allow for all filers based on family size; how many other tax breaks they include; and whether they eliminate payroll and estate taxes.

Related: Rand Paul-onomics: 4 things to know

Here are the few details we know about how Paul would structure his flat tax:

Single, flat tax rate: 17%

Paychecks: Individuals would pay 17% tax on wages and salaries. The net effective rate they pay would almost certainly be lower assuming they're allowed to take an exemption, which is typical under a flat tax. For example, say you gross $100 in income and get to exempt $20. You'd only pay 17% on the $80 that remains. That works out to be $13.60, or just 13.6% of your gross income.

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What Rand Paul's flat tax plan would look like

Rand Paul will finally announce his presidential campaign on Tuesday in Louisville, but avid fans were treated to a peek at his freshened platform a day early. A new campaign video touts the Kentucky Senator as the one man who can defeat the Washington machine and unleash the American dream. The words linger atop a silhouette of the candidate as supporters chant President Paul.

Forgive Paul for going generic with his slogan; there are only so many active verbs and available bromides left in our shared campaign storage unit. But the choice is emblematic of a larger branding decision that could help shape the fate of his presidential bid. Paul rose through the ranks by promising to change the Republican Party, but on the cusp of his campaign he has tweaked his own positions to fit within the GOP.

Ever since his 2013 filibuster against Barack Obamas drone policy vaulted him from Tea Party curiosity to the forefront of the GOP, Paul has boasted a clearer rationale for a presidential bid than any of his rivals. He has been telling audiences that a party staring down the barrel of demographic change must become bigger, broader and more inclusive to win back the White House. His campaign is predicated on the promise that he can attract a younger, more diverse coalition of voters through issues ranging from a more restrained foreign policy to criminal-justice reforms to reining in domestic spying.

The pitch has made Paul a powerful player in the GOP presidential field. He is running at or near the top of the polls, with a stocked bank account and a political network wired through key early states. Instead of downplaying expectations, Paul prefers to stoke the hype. Nobody is running better against Hillary Clinton than myself, he told Fox News.

The path to the nomination is virtually set up for us, says Doug Wead, a friend and adviser to Paul who notes the senators organizational strength and ideological appeal in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada. Its within the realm of possibility that we could have three sequential wins out of the gate.

But even as he claims frontrunner status, theres a question of whether the Kentucky senator has missed his ideological moment. Pauls rise in the polls over the past two years came as the Republican Party warmed to the merits of Pauls non-interventionist foreign policy after more than a decade of war. In one June 2014 survey, 53% of Republicans said the U.S. should mind its own business abroad, up from just 22% in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Yet in recent months, as the U.S. ramped up nuclear negotiations that would ease sanctions on Iran and the Islamic State released a series of ghastly beheading videos, the GOP has rediscovered its hawkish impulses. A Quinnipiac poll last month found that 73% of Republicans now support sending ground troops to battle ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

Paul has reacted to the Republican regression on foreign policy with an apparent evolution of his own. Lately hes shelved his signature non-interventionism in favor of more conventionally muscular rhetoric. When it comes to federal spending, he told the Conservative Political Action Conference in February, for me, the priority is always national defense. A few weeks later, he introduced an amendment calling for a $190 billion boost to the defense budgeta head-snapping reversal from his 2011 proposal to cut defense spending and reduce war funding from $159 billion to zero.

Paul supporters say the shift is a function of changing conditions in the Middle East, not a strategic repositioning. (His campaign spokesman did not return a request for comment for this story.) In any event, it may do little to assuage GOP hawks, who remain deeply leery of Paul. Meanwhile, it may may complicate matters on another front. To win the primary contest, Paul has to pull off a delicate balancing act: expand his political coalition without alienating the demanding libertarian supporters inherited from his father. Ron Pauls presidential campaign was derided by the political class as more farce than force, but to fans he was a beacon of clarity. His son risks irking the libertarian faithful by softening his stances to suit the political climate.

Foreign policy isnt the only realm where Paul has modulated his message. He has long argued the federal government should let states decide the question of gay marriage. The Republican Party, he told CNN, can have people on both sides of the issue. Now he is telling socially conservative audiences that gay marriage is a moral crisis which offends myself and a lot of other people.

This kind of talk may help Paul with Evangelicals in Iowa. But it wont win over the young voters or independents he often brags about bringing into the GOP fold. Nor is there much proof that the bridge-building hes done with communities of color will translate into votes. And on issues where Pauls positions once stood out, such as criminal-justice reform or drug policy, some of his Republican competitors have since caught up.

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A Changed Rand Paul Vows to Change the Republican Party

Rand Pauls presidential campaign is rooted in railing against the establishment. Now, as the Kentucky Republican embarks on a White House bid, he hopes to build a coalition of Silicon Valley libertarians and online grass-roots contributors, and to woo nontraditional GOP donors to raise the tens of millions of dollars needed to run a competitive primary race.

Mostly starved of Wall Street money, Paul is turning to Silicon Valley and to major donors and bundlers in target-rich cities like Dallas and Chicago, promising them a voice in creating policy through councils he hopes to establish across the country. And hes looking to take a page from the campaigns of his father, former Texas Rep. Ron Paul, by aggressive online fundraising.

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The strategy looks more akin to what might be expected if Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren were to run for president. Like Warren, the Kentucky Republican has regularly railed against corporate welfare and has said Republicans cant be the party of fat cats, rich people, and Wall Street, a posture that has almost universally alienated him from a traditional source of campaign cash.

Paul, who will launch a five-day, five-state presidential bid Tuesday in Kentucky, has been gaming out his dollar dance for more than a year regularly reaching out to Californias tech community to create alliances with deep-pocketed industry executives and billionaire entrepreneurs concerned about policy issues like privacy.

Part of the message hes sending out to the tech community [is] that, I want to be close to you, said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association. And part of it is that he sees a naturally ally there in terms of fundraising and messaging, and I think it will be well-received.

Indeed, Pauls first official fundraiser as a presidential candidate is Friday at the home of Ron Sechrist, founder of oxygen and respiratory equipment manufacturing company Sechrist Industries, and his wife Helena, in Newport Beach, California. Helena Sechrist contributed $2,400 to another expected GOP presidential candidate, Carly Fiorina, when she ran for U.S. Senate in 2010.

While Paul has regularly traveled to California, tech industry lobbyists say he made his case to the industry during a recent trip to Austin, Texas, for the annual South by Southwest summit. He took the stage for a high-profile fireside chat to talk tech policy and broadcast his travels on the newly popular live-streaming app Meerkat and he even raised some money at a fundraiser co-hosted by CEA, according to the group.

I think that speaks volumes to the fact he recognizes this is an important voting bloc, and this is an important sector to court, said Internet Association President Michael Beckerman. Asked how he compares to the other GOP hopefuls, given his early outreach: Early relationships go a long way. Its yet to be seen who else is going to run and how other relationships develop over the next year and a half or so, but being first goes a long way.

But Pauls potential disconnect with Silicon Valley also surfaced: He spoke, for example, against the Obama administrations position on net neutrality, a salient and emotional issue among the younger, Web-savvy crowd.

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Rand Paul sees gold in Silicon Valley

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, tweeted out a YouTube video Sunday night that bolsters expectations he will announce his presidential campaign Tuesday.

The slickly produced video runs just under three minutes long and highlights his political rise over the last two years. It cuts together excerpts from his speech at the 2015 Conservative Political Action Conference along with television clips in which reporters, pundits and even comedian Jon Stewart offer flattering analysis of his rise.

The video highlights, among other things, Paul's 13-hour filibuster of President Obama's nominee to lead the CIA in 2013 and his outreach to minority communities. A graphic declares him "a different kind of Republican."

A full-screen graphic at the end of the video reads "On April 7, one leader will stand up to defeat the Washington machine and unleash the American dream." An audio track in the background features a crowd chanting "President Paul" underneath. Viewers are invited to "Join the movement."

Paul is scheduled to hold a rally in Louisville, Kentucky, Tuesday where he is expected to announce his presidential bid. He would be the second Republican to formally declare they are running for president, following on an announcement from Texas Sen. Ted Cruz last month.

After the Louisville speech, Paul will travel to New Hampshire, South Carolina, Iowa and Nevada for rallies.

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Rand Paul video previews presidential announcement