By Scotty Schenck, photo editor

Senator Rand Paul(R-Kentucky) announced earlier today that he will run for president in 2016.

“We’ve come to take our country back. Washington is horribly broken,” Paul said during the announcement at the Galt House in Louisville, Ken. “Both political parties and the entire political system are to blame.”

Paul also updated his website: “Stand with Rand Defeat The Washington Machine.” It includes his stance on sever issues, ranging from tax reform tonational defense. Paul said he supports a flat-= tax at 17 percent for all businesses and individuals, and a strong national defense.

Additionally, Paul has promised to change the Republican Party. In a video composed by the New York Times, Paul said the current GOP has no hopes of winning if it does not embrace financial and personal liberty. Paul also said he wants to secure the border, but allow illegal immigrants already here to be nationalized and start working.

“Border security should be first. I am for normalizing all of the people here. I would do it gradually over a five-year period,” Paul said in the video.

Paul was one the 47 senate Republicans who signed a letter earlier this year to Iran’s leaders about the recent nuclear deal with the country. The letter decried President Barack Obama’s power to sign a nuclear deal with Iran, claiming that any deal reached between the several nations involved in the negotiations could be undone by future presidents or Congress.

However, Politifact.com states since the agreement is an international one, going back would violate international law. The site did mention that Congress can violate international law, but it is unsure how this violation would be treated.

Some of Paul’s stance are not inline with the typical GOP ideologies, including softening the punishments related to the National Security Administration’s (NSA) privacy and drug laws. He promised to stop the government’s domestic phone surveillance program, according to an article in the New York Times.

Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons