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Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn has added two pro-gun amendments to a water resources bill. The two amendments would allow firearms to be carried on some federal land that is managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and would establish a registry of firearms and ammunition owned by the government. The bill is sponsored by California Senator Barbara Boxer and Louisiana Senator David Vitter and is to be voted on by the Senate on Wednesday. Coburn told The Huffington Post that the first amendment will be “just like we have everywhere else,” referring to a law that was signed into...

The debate over gun control is coming back to the Senate earlier than expected. The Senate agreed on Tuesday evening to vote Wednesday afternoon on a pair of firearms-related amendments to the Water Resources Development Act filed by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) “I don’t quite get why we’re voting on guns, but that’s the Republicans’ desire,” said the water bill’s floor manager, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). One amendment would repeal a gun prohibition on land under the jurisdiction of the Army Corps of Engineers. The other would require annual reports from federal agencies on ammunition and gun purchases as well...

The deal senators have struck to expand firearm background checks to all Internet and gun show sales will drive up prices for consumers, weapons retailers say. Manufacturers say the deal, which is the crux of the gun bill that senators will begin debating this week, also includes language that gives background checks for sales at gun shows priority over in-store purchases — something their top trade group says is unfair. -------------cut------------------- But Sen. Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican who was part of the negotiations with Mr. Toomey before dropping out of the talks, said the record-keeping provisions in the deal...

We suspected from media rumors that there was going to be an, “In the event of gun control, break glass,” strategy from the stronger Republicans. Unfortunately, the Toomey-Manchin deal has given real legs to this issue once again, and given murmurs from the House, including my own Congressman (not surprised), I don’t feel particularly good about the House. Getting a “true conservative” like Toomey on board with the deal, unfortunately, makes a lot of critters think “Well, if Toomey is on board, it must be OK!” And so Senator Tom Coburn floats an alternative that I think would be far...

Coburn voted with the rest of the RINOS! Check out the OUTRAGE on his Facebook page! WOW!

n. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) panned an agreement to expand background checks on gun sales that Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) unveiled on Wednesday. "The Manchin-Toomey proposal is a good faith but unworkable plan," Coburn said in a statement. "The proposal will impose new taxes and unreasonable burdens on law-abiding citizens."

(CNN) – A key player in negotiations over potential gun control legislation said on Tuesday a planned GOP filibuster of the bill won’t occur if Democrats allow Republicans to bring amendments up for a vote. Sen. Tom Coburn, speaking on CNN’s “Erin Burnett Outfront,” said a filibuster that’s been promised by more than a dozen fellow Republicans would prevent Americans from seeing where their elected officials stand on the issue. “It’s not going to be filibustered,” Coburn said, adding that the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid needs to offer "an open amendment process" in order for Republicans to agree to...

Sen. Tom Coburn (R., Okla.) is quietly circulating his own proposal for expanding gun-sale background checks, a sign that the conservative lawmaker may be trying to build support outside of long-running bipartisan negotiations on the issue. After struggling for months to reach a deal with Democrats on how to broaden background checks, Mr. Coburn has written a 43-page draft of a bill that wouldn’t require private gun sellers to keep a paper record of the sale, according to a copy of the proposal. Dropping the record-keeping requirement would make it difficult for Democrats to support the bill, according to individuals...

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has responded to a letter dated November 13, 2012 from Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) regarding the agency's ammunition purchases. Sen. Coburn published the response on the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs website yesterday, April 1, 2013.

Sen. Tom Coburn prescribing medicine the administration can't swallow The Oklahoman Editorial | Published: March 11, 2013 SEN. Tom Coburn, the good doctor from Muskogee, is prescribing medication that the Obama administration finds hard to swallow: the truth. Coburn has taken to writing letters almost daily to administration officials exposing their sky-is-falling rhetoric about the sequester's effects as so much hooey, and pointing out that cuts can be made in many areas without affecting agency operations. After Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said last week that sequestration would force the closing of 173 air-traffic control towers and the furloughing of just...

Citizen disarmament advocate Charles Schumer (D-N.Y) has shown that the cry for universal background checks has always been a subterfuge to move toward universal firearms registration. Senator Coburn (R-OK) has offered a compromise allowing for background checks as long as no records are kept. Such systems are easily implemented and controlled through sting operations. The advantage of such a system is that can not easily be used to construct a universal registration database. Gun registration has historically been the precursor of gun confiscations, either slowly and individually, over time, or in groups during a crises. It appears that the potential...

Letter at link.

Republican Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) told me Sunday on ABC News' "This Week" that he is willing to accept tax rate increases as a component of a fiscal cliff deal, as long as Democrats put "significant entitlement reform" on the table. "What we ought to be working on is the other 93 percent, because even if you do what [Obama] wants to do on tax rates, you only affect 7 percent of the deficit," Coburn said. "What we have done is spend ourselves into a hole, and we're not going to raise taxes and borrow money and get out of...

An article in Monday’s Washington Times, highlighted the Democratic efforts in the Senate to block Senator Tom Cobun’s amendment to require a court order before denying a veteran under Veteran’s Administration care the right to own a gun. Until four years ago, I would not have been so concerned about the VA making a medical mental competency call on an individual veteran being treated for mental health issues. Certainly, no one in their right mind would argue that the mentally incompetent should own guns. Also, the vast majority of the people who work for the bureaucratic organization known as the...

The Department of Defense (DOD) is responsible for protecting national security and providing military forces to deter war, yet it blows tens of billions of dollars on preposterous things unrelated to its mission. A variety of unimaginable examples are featured in a baffling report (“Department of Everything” ) published this month by a Republican U.S. Senator, who asserts the Pentagon could easily save around $70 billion over ten years without cutting any Army brigade combat teams, Navy combat ships or Air Force fighter squadrons. It could be done simply by getting rid of the waste, according to the findings. That’s...

Election 2012 ‘A Valley Forge Moment for Conservatives’ By: Sen. Tom Cobrun Thank you for that kind introduction. It’s an honor to be with you tonight as we celebrate the American Spectator’s 45th anniversary. I especially want to thank Bob Tyrrell who has been with the Spectator since the very beginning. Bob, I want thank you and honor you for your commitment to telling the truth, and for reminding us to laugh, which is especially important in times like this.Like most of you I wish we had a different outcome last week. But it’s important to talk honestly about what...

Following his office’s publishing of his annual Wastebook last month, Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) has now released another oversight report, this one exploring waste and “non-defense” spending in the Department of Defense (DOD), entitled the “Department of Everything.” In his Wastebook Coburn concluded that “all the outrageous and wasteful contents of this report were made possible by either the action or lack of action of Congress, earning it the well-deserved but unwanted distinction as the biggest waste of taxpayer money in 2012.” Right behind the Congress, however, is the Department of Defense, which has been spending taxpayer monies on projects,...

A woman was awarded Social Security disability benefits because of "crippling hand pain" from carpel tunnel syndrome, but still managed to work as a bartender. A judge coached a disability applicant to lie about paying rent to boost his payments from the government. ‘I think you could flip a coin for anybody who came before the Social Security commission for disability and get it right just as often as the ALJs do, - Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla.’ A man with history of cocaine addiction was approved for disability because of back pain and headaches, which he claimed could be controlled...

Coburn: Sequestration doesn’t have to hurt if we just cut the waste, duplication and ridiculous out of the Pentagon. CBS News ran this report tonight and I was literally stunned at some of the “ridiculous” Coburn has found in wasteful spending in the Pentagon: Sequestration could be Pentagon pork killer

The more voters learn about Congressman Paul Ryan's leadership style and his thoughtful and creative approach to solving problems, the more they will decide that the Romney-Ryan ticket looks presidential and electable. That's why there has been a coordinated effort in recent days to ramp up not just the "Mediscare" rhetoric against Mr. Ryan, but to depict him as a partisan ideologue who was instrumental in derailing a grand bargain on the deficit. This line of attack is cynical and, most of all, false. First, Paul Ryan didn't force President Obama to abandon the budget recommendations of his own 2010...

Video captures tea party activist confronting Coburn at public event Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., has promised constituents he would contact Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Arizona to be briefed on details of the sheriff’s law enforcement investigation into Barack Obama’s presidential eligibility. In a video posted on YouTube.com, tea-party activist Miki Booth is seen at a public appearance confronting the senator about a letter she wrote to him. To date, however, Arpaio has received no contact from Coburn or his office. In a second press conference held in Phoenix July 17, Mike Zullo, lead investigator in Arpaio’s Cold Case...

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) says he supports Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin’s re-election because he believes Manchin is not beholden to short-sighted political interests. Coburn recently gave $250 to Manchin’s re-election campaign. “I think he votes thinking about the long-term interests of the country. We don’t agree on everything but he’s a good guy,” Coburn told The Hill.

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), a staunch fiscal conservative and Tea Party favorite, said he is certain that the United States will face another credit downgrade. "S&P's downgrade on us was right, matter of fact we're going to get another downgrade. I can tell you right now, you can have a great legal case for suing the rating agencies for not downgrading us again because we have not demonstrated the political will to solve the problems," said Coburn on CBS's midweek show "Face to Face," posted online Wednesday. The Oklahoma senator told CBS that he has "no doubt" that there will...

Charlie Rose and Dr. Coburn [Seantor Tom Coburn] discuss what it's going to take to save the U.S. economy from becoming the next Greece, and shifting the debate in Washington to focus on the real problems: cutting spending, reforming the tax code, and members of Congress having the courage to take the hard votes.

Many politicians (and many voters) duck the hard choices when it comes to Medicare reform. But what’s remarkable about the past year is that, in some ways, momentum appears to be building for real improvements to the program’s quality and sustainability. Based on a new proposal from Sens. Richard Burr (R., N.C.) and Tom Coburn (R., Okla.), the impossible seems within reach: the triumph of sound policy over interest-group politics.Today, Sens. Burr and Coburn have put forth a new Medicare reform proposal, the Seniors’ Choice Act, which combines the ideas behind the best two bipartisan plans that came out last...

Oklahoma's Tom Coburn is the most conservative member of the Senate, while New Yorker Kirsten Gillibrand and Oregon's Jeff Merkley share the title of top liberals, according to National Journal's 2011 Congressional Vote Ratings. Coburn jumped eight spots to snag the most conservative label this year, and it's Gillibrand's second consecutive appearance in the list of top ten most liberal members. For the past three decades, National Journal has rated members of Congress based on selected roll-call votes from the previous year to create an ideological scale for Congress. This year, National Journal examined all 949 roll call votes in...

Republican Senator Tom Coburn R-Okla. has some harsh words for his former boss Newt Gingrich who is currently the frontrunner in the 2012 GOP bid for the White House. “There’s a lot of candidates out there. I’m not inclined to be a supporter of Newt Gingrich’s having served under him for four years and personally experienced his leadership,” said Coburn said today on “Fox News Sunday.” Coburn served under then Speaker Gingrich after being elected to the House of Representatives in 1994 as part of the great Republican revival brought on by Gingrich. “There’s all types of leaders. Leaders that...

If you told me that somebody had published a comprehensive report on wasteful government policies which dole out billions of dollars to the wealthiest individuals in the country, one of the last people I’d expect to find as the author would be Senator Tom Coburn.(R-OK) But that’s precisely what unfolded when I found that the senator had borrowed a tag line from 1970s television programming and released, “Subsidies of the Rich and Famous.� U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK) today released a new report “Subsidies of the Rich and Famous” illustrating how, under the current tax code, the federal government...

But under Thursday’s agreement, Coburn will be allowed to insert language into a longer-term highways bill that Democrats and Republicans will negotiate before the new round of funding expires in six months. Coburn’s provision would allow states to opt out of a program requiring them to set aside millions of dollars for beautification projects like bike paths, sound walls and decorative highway signs. The conservative Oklahoma senator - known for singlehandedly holding up Senate business — had come under increasing pressure from his GOP colleagues, and eventually relented-. Earlier Thursday, they said he was demanding too much on a bill...

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence is a day (or two) late and a few brain cells late to a major gun-related news story. Writing for yesterday’s opposingviews.com, Dennis Henigan excoriated Senator Coburn for joking about carrying a gun on Capitol Hill, referencing the possibility that presidential candidate Rick Perry might have a CCW. Why not let pols pack heat? “It is the same reason that ournational parks are less safe because (due to legislation sponsored by Senator Coburn himself) concealed carry of weapons is now permitted within their borders . . . It is the reason that our streets, restaurants and...

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) criticized his congressional colleagues Tuesday, calling them "cowards" and a "class of career elitists," adding that it was a good thing he wasn't allowed to carry a weapon on the Senate floor. "It's just a good thing I can't pack a gun on the Senate floor," Coburn told a crowd in Langley, Okla., as reported in Wednesday's The Tulsa World.The two-term senator, who has earned the nickname "Dr. No" for his frequent holds on legislation, has never been one to mince words. But his comments about carrying a gun come after the January

Navy Times is reporting that Senator Tom Coburn (R) has a plan to cut DOD by spending by $43 billion. His plan will force retirees off TRICARE Prime (HMO) and into TRICARE Standard (PPO). Then his plan is to raise the fees for standard so high (total out of pocket cost $7,500 annually) "working age" retirees (under 65) will opt out for mythical cheaper medical insurance from some as of yet unidentified employer. While I admit TRICARE Prime is cheap none of Coburn's figures add in Dental, separate plans under TRICARE. As a retiree my wife and I pay out...

President Obama and his Tea Party rivals find themselves on the same side of defense cuts. This is bad news for the country. If the so-called “super-committee” created by the deal to raise the debt limit does not reach agreement on future spending cuts, it would trigger automatic cuts of $1.2 trillion divided evenly between domestic programs and defense. In other words, the Pentagon could have to cough up $600 billion over the coming decade. As The Washington Post reports, “To put that $600 billion in perspective, it’s worth noting that the federal government was already looking at reducing projected...

Excellent speech from Sen Coburn telling it how it is. Then old Sen Kerry interrupts. http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/SenRe/start/14756/stop/16376

Last week, I wrote that the current deficit and debt ceiling negotiations happening in Washington represent politics at their worst – politics on steroids. Amidst the posturing and prevaricating, however, one conservative has emerged with a legitimate plan to liberate America from its bondage of debt. This week, Senator Tom Coburn released a 600-page plan that would reduce the deficit by $9 trillion over the next ten years by slashing wasteful spending and eliminating an estimated $1 trillion in tax deductions. The plan is not a gimmick, it's not smoke and mirrors, and it's not a media stunt. Senator Coburn...

The Pentagon and its supporters are bracing for the likelihood of much deeper reductions in the U.S. military's budget, as budget negotiators now eye defense cuts of $800 billion or more over the next decade. With talks intensifying ahead of an August 2 deadline to raise the debt limit, lawmakers hoping to shape an overall budget deal have advanced proposals that would cut defense spending by more than double the $400 billion President Barack Obama proposed just three months ago. Some proposals call for as much as $1 trillion in cuts over the next decade.

The best example of this is the plan's tax proposal, which alternately boasts that it cuts taxes by $1.5 trillion and raises them by $1 trillion, but which more likely will result in taxes going up by more than $3 trillion. According to the outline, the $1.5 trillion in "tax relief" is how the Congressional Budget Office would score the plan. But what the gang conveniently leaves out is that the CBO's forecast has $4.6 trillion in tax hikes already baked into it. That's because the CBO baseline assumes all the Bush tax cuts get repealed, that every other temporary...

(CNSNews.com) – Despite President Barack Obama’s vow to veto the Cut, Cap and Balance bill passed by the House of Representatives, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) said he would bet a “Porterhouse steak” that the president would sign the legislation if it arrived at his desk. “It doesn’t matter what the polls are,” Coburn told reporters at the Capitol on Thursday. “We’ve got to fix our country, and this is the only viable plan right now that will do that. And I will bet you a Porterhouse steak that if it lands on his desk, he’ll sign this puppy.” White House...

A couple of times in recent weeks, the personal cellphone of Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma rang, and a baritone voice on the other end asked simply, “You know who this is?” Mr. Coburn did indeed know by the sound of the voice. The caller was President-to-be Barack Obama, dialing up to chat about what the senator calls “spiritual things,” and then some policy issues facing the new administration. The exchanges might seem unremarkable, except for the extreme odd-bedfellow nature of the Democratic president and the Republican senator he was calling. Mr. Coburn is among the most conservative lawmakers in...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama and a startling number of Republican senators lauded a bipartisan deficit-reduction plan Tuesday that includes $1 trillion in higher taxes, raising hopes of a last-minute compromise to repair the nation's finances while averting a government default. Wall Street saluted as well. Obama said he hoped congressional leaders would "start talking turkey" as soon as Wednesday along the lines of the Senate "Gang of Six" proposal, which quickly overshadowed a no-tax-increase alternative that conservatives spent Tuesday pushing toward an evening vote in the House. .....

President Barack Obama said Tuesday that a proposal offered by Republican and Democratic senators is “a very significant step” that represents “the potential for bipartisan consensus” on resolving the impasse over cutting the deficit and raising the debt ceiling. In an appearance in the White House briefing room, Obama urged congressional leaders to embrace the “Gang of Six” proposal, which would slash the deficit by $3.7 trillion over 10 years, in part by raising about $1 trillion in new revenue. We have a Democratic president and administration that is prepared to sign a tough package that includes both spending cuts,...

The Gang of Six “Bipartisan Plan to Reduce Our Nation’s Deficits” claims their tax reforms would be scored by the Congressional Budget Office as a $1.5 trillion net cut. But no details are provided on how they arrive at this number other than saying they will abolish the Alternative Minimum tax. So how can this plan claim to be a “balanced approach” (which means higher revenues), yet also claim to be a $1.5 trillion tax cut? This probably means they are using a CBO baseline that assumes the AMT continues as written today and that the current Bush rates expire....

  The once moribund Senate “Gang of Six” regained new life Tuesday after Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn unexpectedly rejoined the group — and more senators are now coalescing around a new proposal that would cut the debt by as much as $3.7 trillion over the next decade. Other top senators are also getting behind the plan, including Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the No. 3 Senate Republican, who told a group of senators Tuesday he would back the Gang of Six’s proposal, sources say. The fast-moving developments mean that elements of the proposal could influence the stalled talks to raise the...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Time running short to raise the government's borrowing limit, President Barack Obama on Tuesday hailed a plan by a bipartisan senators' group on deficit reduction as the kind of "balanced approach" the nation is looking for. He said it's time for Congress as a whole to rally around such a proposal. "We don't have any more time to engage in symbolic gestures, we don't have any more time to posture. It's time to get down to the business of actually solving this problem," the president said. Obama spoke even as House Republicans pushed toward a vote on...

President Obama joined Democratic and Republican senators Tuesday in offering support for a $3.7 trillion deficit-reduction plan announced Tuesday morning by the five remaining members of the Gang of Six. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who pulled out of the Gang of Six in May, also rejoined the group and praised the plan as something that could win the 60 votes needed to pass the Senate. “The plan has moved significantly, and it’s where we need to be — and it’s a start,” Coburn said. “This doesn’t solve our problems, but it creates the way forward where we can solve our...

WASHINGTON (AP) — One of the Senate's staunchest budget-cutters unveiled Monday a massive plan to cut the nation's deficit by $9 trillion over the coming decade. The plan by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., is laced with politically perilous proposals like raising to 70 the age at which people can claim their full Social Security benefits. It would cut farm subsidies, Medicare, student aid, housing subsidies for the poor, and funding for community development grants. Coburn even takes on the powerful veterans' lobby by proposing that some veterans pay more for medical care and prescription drugs. Coburn was a member of...

Sen. Tom Coburn's deficit-reduction plan Details of Sen. Tom Coburn's $9 trillion plan to balance the budget NewsOK Related Articles Sen. Tom Coburn's plan: Would save about $9 trillion over 10 years, including $3 trillion from entitlements, $3 trillion from government departments and agencies, $1 trillion from defense, $1 trillion from ending or modifying tax breaks and deductions, and $1 trillion in interest on the debt. Would reduce the size of government by 25 percent over 10 years. Would balance the budget within 10 years. Read more: http://newsok.com/details-of-sen.-tom-coburns-9-trillion-plan-to-balance-the-budget/article/3586676#ixzz1SUBIXa8X

Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said Sunday that fellow GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell's proposal to raise the debt limit was "a great political plan" but that it didn't solve the nation's debt crisis - and so he was not likely to vote for it. In an appearance on CBS' "Face the Nation," Coburn claimed he no longer cared about the politics of the debate, and said that "I am only going to support something that actually solves the problem." "I haven't firmly decided, but I am unlikely to support it at this time," Coburn said, of McConnell's plan, which would allow...

Sens. Tom Coburn (R., Okla.) and Joe Lieberman (I., Ct.) have produced a Medicare-reform proposal. The bill would save Medicare $600 billion over ten years and extend the program’s solvency by 30 years. It would save money by raising the eligibility age to 67 by 2025, increasing premiums and co-pays, and means-testing benefits so that wealthier beneficiaries paid more. It would also curtail “Medigap” plans — which cover the difference between what Medicare pays and the total cost of a procedure, reducing the program’s already-modest incentives for seniors to economize on care. The proposal is a good one, and it...

Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) entered the debt and deficit debate Tuesday, proposing a Medicare overhaul they said would cut the deficit by about $600 billion during the next decade. The duo, which Coburn nicknamed the “brothers two,” now intends to drum up support by shopping its plan around, including to the “gang of six,” from which Coburn took a sabbatical. Coburn left the bipartisan group, which was exploring ways to decrease the deficit, because he felt it was not going far enough in cutting entitlements. But he has clearly found an ally in Lieberman, who in...