Dr. Coburn: Momentum is Building

Independent Voice, Citizen Legislator, Family Doctor is a perfect description of Dr. Coburn or Dr. Tom as he is known around Oklahoma. We love the fact he is an independent voice and is not beholding to any group except the people of Oklahoma who elected him. He is fighting day after day against pork and earmarks that are a mainstay of the Congress. He is not afraid to make anyone mad when he knows he is doing the right thing which makes us proud to have him as our Senator.

Dear Sharon,

Momentum is Building

Earlier this month, I reported to you about the ongoing debate surrounding a short-term extension in unemployment benefits. As you will recall, House and Senate leaders were hoping to avoid their own rules by passing the $9 billion measure without the required reductions in lower priority spending elsewhere. As soon as Congress returned last week, it doubled the size of the bill to $18 billion, and again insisted on passing its costs on to future generations.

While we came up short in our effort to force Congressional leadership to pay for the extension—sadly, it is not hard to find $18 billion in waste and inefficiencies in Washington—momentum is building. My primary amendment, which would have paid for the extension in full without adding a single dime to the deficit, came up just two votes shy of the majority necessary. While this loss was disappointing, I am encouraged.

The American people get it and soon Washington will get it.

I can assure you that we would not have received a near majority of votes in favor of these amendments just six months ago. Your voice, heard all across the country, is beginning to rattle the politicians in Congress.

We must not relent in our calls for accountability. While a few more senators and representatives have joined our cause for limited government and lower spending, our message must be carried through to November and beyond.

This November, if we push forward, we will unleash a quiet revolution at the ballot box that can mark the beginning of true restoration. We can once again have a government that matches the values of the people—one that honors its Constitution, one willing to sacrifice to preserve freedom and opportunity for our children and grandchildren, and one that recognizes that freedom is not on loan from Washington, but a gift from our Creator.

Keep it up!

Sincerely,

Dr. Tom

Why We Say No: Washington Waste of the Week

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) just released the results of a year-long study of federal food assistance programs that was requested by Dr. Coburn. The lengthy analysis revealed that federal government maintains at least 70 food assistance programs across multiple agencies, costing more than $62 billion annually. Researchers found significant overlap among many of the programs, and indicated that: “little is known about the effectiveness” of 11 of the 18 programs that were the focus of the investigation “because they have not been well studied.” While researchers gave the top seven programs generally high marks, the report should make clear to Congress that it is failing to perform the kind of oversight necessary to ensure that programs are working and not duplicating existing efforts. Each year, Congress authorizes hundreds of new programs that already exist in the federal government, wasting hundreds of billions of dollars and limiting the effectiveness of core programs.

Just The Facts

The United States Department of Agriculture has more than 100,000 employees (over 10,000 in the Washington, DC area), 14,000 field and office locations, and has completed a multi-million dollar renovation of its offices near the National Mall in Washington, DC. According to the agency’s Chief Financial Officer, his office oversees “an enterprise that in the private sector, would be the sixth largest company in the United States.”