Freshman Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) went against the grain in his speech at CPAC Thursday, slamming the GOP for pursuing budget cuts he deemed insignificant and arguing for much more more aggressive action -- slashing entitlement and defense spending.
"We face a looming debt crisis. It's worse than you can imagine," Paul said, claiming that the nation was approaching a "point of no return."
The Tea Party-backed senator then accused Republican leadership's budget solution of being "too little, it's not enough, it's too timid, and we must be more bold."
"We will have to have entitlement reform," Paul said, before floating a more controversial, but not new proposal for the senator and his libertarian-leaning father, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas). "We will have to look long and hard at the military budget."
After a volley of approving yells and reproachful jeers, Paul went on: "The most important thing that our government does is our national defense, absolutely. But you cannot say that the doubling of the military budget in the last 10 years has all been spent wisely and there's not any waste in it."
While the issue of including the defense budget in calls to dramatically cut spending has been a particularly divisive issue in the GOP, Paul also threw out a few other controversial suggestions.
"It's time we go back to the Republican roots that says, 'We believe in abolishing the Department of Education," Paul said, arguing that institutions not provided for in the Constitution should be eliminated. And, he said, "The age of Social Security will have to gradually rise," implying later that he would be open to a complete retool of the program.
WATCH Paul's Speech: