The Chatter: Rand Paul expresses interest in 2016 run plus Ky.'s GDP puts state at risk

Kentucky U.S. Senator Rand Paul isn’t shying away from expressing his interest in running for the White House in 2016, according to an ABC News interview.

Paul expressed interest in running this year until his father, Texas Congressman Ron Paul, officially entered the race in 2011. The younger Paul deferred to his father, who is effectively retiring from electoral politics this year.

Kentucky’s junior U.S. senator told ABC believes the Republican Party is headed in the wrong direction and that it can be turned around if the focus is put on localizing issues to state governments instead of focusing of federal responses.

With looming fiscal cliff, Kentucky could be hit worse than others

If automatic budget cuts are not averted by negotiations in Washington, some states would fare far worse than others, Kentucky being one of them.

In a story published by CNBC this week, the Pew Center on the States ranked which states would get hit the worst on five key measures. The featuring Kentucky being the percentage of the state’s GDP comes from federal government.

As of fiscal 2010, Kentucky was among the top five highest with close to 10 percent of its GDP coming from federal government.