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March 09, 2009
Interview with Senator Tom Coburn
Lou Dobbs TonightDOBBS: A Senate vote on a massive $410 billion spending bill is expected as soon as tomorrow. Senate Republicans say the bill is loaded with thousands of earmarks, almost 9,000 of them. Among the senators vowing to vote against the legislation is Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma. Senator Coburn joins us tonight. Senator, great to have you with us.
SEN. TOM COBURN (R), OKLAHOMA: Good to be with you, Lou.
DOBBS: Let me just sort of share with everybody a couple of the things that are in there. Because we said, you know, the Republicans say, these are facts. In the kind of spending that you're talking about include the following here, if we can put this up for our viewers. $1.9 million water taxi service, Pleasure Beach, Connecticut. $1.8 million, swine odor and manure -- I love this one -- swine odor and manure management research, Ames, Iowa. It sort of implies they're going to get rid of swine odor, doesn't it?
COBURN: They've been working on it for 10 years. They hadn't done it yet.
DOBBS: $238,000, Polynesian Voyaging Society, Honolulu, Hawaii.
COBURN: You can get that mental picture in your mind in a little ancient canoe? We're going to pay for it.
DOBBS: I've got it. And this is the kind of nonsense -- there are 8,500 of these things stuck in that bill. I mean, that's crazy.
COBURN: It's $7.7 billion more importantly that we don't need to spend. Some of these may be good plans and good ideas, but the question comes -- the American people ask, what's our priority right now? Our priority ought to be putting people to work, solving our financial problems, fixing the housing crisis, and not doing things that make politicians look good that our grandkids are going to pay for.
DOBBS: I was talking to a teacher today on my radio show, and he had a great idea. He was explaining how he explains to his third- grade students as he teaches them, they wanted to know what a stimulus package was, and he started explaining it. And finally, got through the explanation, and he says what it means is that each of you has a credit card in which we've run up all sorts of debt before you even get a chance to use the credit card. Which I thought was pretty good.
COBURN: Well, it's actually counter to everything that this country stands for. You know, we became a great country because one generation would sacrifice for the next. One would work harder to create greater opportunity. And we're doing that just in reverse.
Don't lose sight of the fact that this bill is 8 percent above last year's level, when inflation was less than 3 percent, and we just increased the average agency under this bill by 80 percent with the stimulus bill.
DOBBS: This is...
COBURN: They're clueless. They are absolutely clueless when it comes to common sense, and they've refused to make long-term choices that might be difficult for them politically, but would be good for the country.
DOBBS: Congressman Steny Hoyer said that the president has no business or power to tell Congress to roll back earmarks. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi defended those earmarks as an appropriate function of Congress. He's the one who said there wouldn't be any earmarks. Where do we go from here? Is this just more political nonsense?
COBURN: It is nonsense. But remember all the claims you'll hear. I wasn't a big fan of President Bush's fiscal policies, but what you hear on the floor of the House and the Senate is how bad Bush was in terms of spending money.
DOBBS: Right.
COBURN: The problem is that President Obama, Bush, Clinton before them, can't spend a penny until we let them.
DOBBS: Right.
COBURN: And so it's us. And we refuse to be grown up and adult and consequently...
DOBBS: I can't...
COBURN: ... really damaging our country right now.
DOBBS: Well, I can't wait for that day of political maturity that you just suggested. Let's hope it arrives sooner.
COBURN: One other thing -- the president can veto this bill. And he ought to. And he'll send a message that would excite the American people.
DOBBS: You know, Senator, I'm just sure he's going to do exactly that. Aren't you?
COBURN: Well, I'll pray about it tonight, and hopefully we'll have some divine intervention.
DOBBS: You got it. Well, thank you very much, Senator Tom Coburn.
COBURN: Good to see you.
