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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...

Last month, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I., Conn.) voted against the House Republican budget authored by Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.), which includes significant reforms to Medicare. After doing so, the former Democrat says, he could not in good conscience do nothing, as that would signal an endorsement of the status quo, which when it comes to Medicare, as well as the national debt, is simply unsustainable. Indeed, the program’s own trustees admit as much. So Lieberman took to the pages of the Washington Post to offer his own plan to preserve Medicare for future generations. Sen. Tom Coburn (R., Okla.)...

Oklahoma senator hopes is putting the finishing touches on his plan to reduce the federal deficit by $9 trillion. He expects to release it this week. WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, who has been working on a deficit-reduction plan worth $9 trillion over 10 years, said he hopes to release the blueprint late this week. That timetable may slip since the scope of the plan requires so many calculations (mathematical, not political). Coburn, R-Muskogee, and his staff have been working on the plan since the senator dropped out of the bipartisan Gang of Six deficit reduction talks in May....

The Norquist–Coburn Feud ReignitesAre tax subsidies the same as tax cuts, or are they just subsidies? The feud between Sen. Tom Coburn (R., Okla.) and tax lobbyist Grover Norquist came to a head (again) this week as Republicans girded themselves for a potential deal on the debt ceiling. Sparks flew Tuesday when Coburn forced a cloture vote on an amendment to eliminate $6 billion in ethanol tax subsidies. Ethanol, however, was hardly the issue at stake. GOP leaders have made it clear that Republicans will not support a deal to raise the debt ceiling if it includes tax increases. But...

Several Senate Republicans are angry at anti-tax activist Grover Norquist’s position on a major ethanol vote, creating a rift between one of Washington’s most influential conservatives and a Republican Party that has marched largely in lock step with his campaign tax pledges over the years. “What Grover Norquist has just done is blown his pledge wide open,” Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) told POLITICO.

Coburn on Grover Norquist: ‘Old news..doesn’t matter what he says’ Coburn talks with reporters before their caucus luncheon on Capitol Hill Tuesday. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) An intra-GOP feud played out in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday.

The 18 Senators Who Approve Breaking The Internet To Protect Hollywood from the not-cool dept Last fall, we noted that the Senate Judiciary Committee had unanimously voted to approve COICA, a bill for censoring the internet as a favor to the entertainment industry. Thankfully, Senator Ron Wyden stepped up and blocked COICA from progressing. This year, COICA has been replaced by the PROTECT IP Act, which fixes some of the problems of COICA, but introduces significant other problems as well. A wide cross section of people who actually understand technology and innovation have come out against PROTECT IP as written...

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), one of the fiercest Second Amendment defenders on Capitol Hill, supports another look at gun laws designed to block firearm sales to the mentally ill, his office said Thursday. Congress passed such a law in 2007, following the shooting deaths of 32 students and teachers at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute. Yet the suspect in this month's Arizona shooting reportedly had little trouble buying a handgun in November, even despite earlier concerns about disturbing behavior and habitual drug use. The tragic episode — in which a federal judge was killed and a congresswoman critically injured — has...

Video..Good information http://www.c/coburn-on-budget-negotiations-send-me-some-senators-with-gonads/

Coburn, Toomey: Drop the Policy Riders April 8, 2011 1:03 P.M. By Daniel Foster Here’s Senator Toomey: “I’d like to defund Planned Parenthood, but I understand that Republicans don’t have complete control of the elected government,” Toomey said on MSNBC. “I think what we should do is cut spending as much as we can, get the policy changes that we can, but move on, because there are other, bigger battles that we are fighting.” And here’s Senator Coburn: COBURN: The one thing I’ve learned in my years here is there’s one reason to talk about something, if you want to...

(CNSNews.com) - Two Republican senators on Friday introduced a bill to stop taxpayer subsidies to public radio and television. Since 2001, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has received nearly $4 billion in taxpayer money for National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Sens. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) said with the nation on the brink of bankruptcy, some decisions to cut spending are difficult -- but not this one: "Americans struggling to make ends meet shouldn’t be forced to fund public broadcasting when there are already thousands of choices for educational and entertainment programming on...

Earlier this week, Tom Coburn quit the Gang of Six negotiations in the Senate, saying that the bipartisan working group on the budget wanted to go in a substantially different direction than Coburn would travel. Given that context, Coburn’s essay in today’s Washington Post prompts a question — just where exactly did the Gang of Six want to go? Coburn argues in his article that conservatives are going to have to swallow some tax hikes to get the spending cuts they want (via OTB):

A key senator has asked the Social Security Administration to investigate how people who live their lives role-playing as “adult babies” are able to get taxpayer-funded disability payments — after one of them was featured on a recent reality TV episode wearing diapers, feeding from a bottle and using an adult-sized crib he built. Sen. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican and the Senate’s top waste-watcher, asked the agency’s inspector general to look into 30-year-old Stanley Thornton Jr. and his roommate, Sandra Dias, who acts as his “mother,” saying it’s not clear why they are collecting Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits instead...

A key senator has asked the Social Security Administration to investigate how people who live their lives role-playing as “adult babies” are able to get taxpayer-funded disability payments — after one of them was featured on a recent reality TV episode wearing diapers, feeding from a bottle and using an adult-sized crib he built. Sen. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican and the Senate’s top waste-watcher, asked the agency’s inspector general to look into 30-year-old Stanley Thornton Jr. and his roommate, Sandra Dias, who acts as his “mother,” saying it’s not clear why they are collecting Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits instead...

Remember what Alan Simpson said after Obama’s disastrous, demagogic, compromise-destroying attack on Paul Ryan a few weeks ago? He knew he’d just seen any chance of a deal between the Republican and Democratic leaderships go up in smoke. Quote: “Just pray for the Gang of Six,” he said. “You guys your age, keep praying.” What happens if the Gang of Six fails? Mr. Simpson was asked. “Guys like you will be picking grit with the chickens when you are 65,” he replied. Start boning up on grit-picking, my friends:

Call it the party of one? After taking a “sabbatical” from the “gang of six” talks on deficit reduction, Sen. Tom Coburn is writing his own budget blueprint that will aggressively tackle entitlements. “I’m working hard on my plan,” the Oklahoma Republican said Thursday, adding that he and his staff have been working on it for about six days — before he walked out on the bipartisan group of Senators. “I want everybody to shoot at it and tell me why it won’t work,” Coburn said. He added that he wouldn’t be concerned if others join the gang of six...

I want to call this a palate cleanser, but it’s so acidic — especially his memory of the sign in Newt’s office on the Hill — that it’s more likely to burn your tongue. Can’t use it as evidence of the upswell in conservative anger towards Newt after his MTP appearance either, I’m afraid: Coburn is a Gingrich critic of loooongstanding, which makes this less of a standard “what happened to Newt?” lament than a bitter “I told you so.” To follow up on an earlier analogy, it’s as if Coburn jumped into the ring, pushed Drago aside, and started...

On the other hand, watch the clip below. If this guy’s not “disabled,” who is? “Given that Mr. Thornton is able to determine what is appropriate attire and actions in public, drive himself to complete errands, design and custom-make baby furniture to support a 350-pound adult and run an Internet support group, it is possible that he has been improperly collecting disability benefits for a period of time,” Mr. Coburn wrote in a letter Monday to Inspector General Patrick P. O’Carroll Jr…In an email response to The Washington Times, Mr. Thornton threatened to kill himself if his Social Security payments...

Excellent speech on Senate floor by Senator Coburn on oil and gas prices and lack of knowledge by our Congress. He also addresses government regulation and rips the Obama administration. VIDEO 10:30 minutes H/T to blueyon for the heads up.

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), arguably the most prominent fiscal conservative in the Senate, is declaring his independence from one of the country's leading anti-tax groups, Americans for Tax Reform - and its fiery founder, Grover Norquist.