Tea Party Response to State of the Union: Rand Paul vs Marco Rubio

Following the tradition started by Michele Bachmann in 2011 and Herman Cain in 2012, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) will deliver the Tea Party response to President Obama's State of the Union address on Tuesday night.

The response demonstrates the continued division within the country's GOP party, particularly at a time when the party needs to show a unified and cohesive vision opposed to President Obama.  However, Paul sees his response as a way to further push Rubio's comment "as extra response, [not] necessarily divisive."

Paul is likely to speak about shrinking big government, focusing on cutting foreign aid to countries like Egypt and Pakistan, requiring balanced federal budgets and drastically cutting federal taxes.

His rebuttal will be aired on RedState.com.  The GOP isn't really worried about Paul's rebuttal to Obama's address as further splitting the Republican party.  However, if he really hits it home, he could cause some ripples in the GOP party and unofficially kick-off the GOP's 2016 presidential race.