Free Republic

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...