The Coburn Omnibus July 22, 2008
Posted by fitsnews in : US Politics , trackback
OKLAHOMA SENATOR STANDS UP TO THE BIG, BAD FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
FITSNews - July 22, 2008 - If you’ve never read Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn’s book Breach of Trust, you probably don’t know the real story behind the so-called “Republican Revolution” of 1994 - namely, that there was no “revolution.”
Easily one of the best political books of the decade, Coburn’s 2003 narrative of how Washington D.C. “turns outsiders into insiders” paints a damning portrait of the Republican Party (one which ended up being more accurate than he could have ever imagined), and happens to be most dead-on account of the dangers of unchecked government growth that we’ve ever read.
Seriously, you can actually feel the scales falling from your eyes (or the tax dollars slipping from your pockets) as you read Coburn’s book - and the fact that Republicans and Democrats have further wrecked our nation’s fiscal position in the five years since it was published only adds credence and immediacy to this Oklahoma physician’s jarring wisdom.
Given Coburn’s background, it’s no surprise then that he’s one of the few Republicans in Washington who is actually standing up for taxpayers. In fact, he’s done such a good job on that front this year that Democrats are resorting to desperate measures in an effort to get around him. Specifically, they’re trying to combine over three dozen bills (and nearly 80 new federal funding obligations) which Coburn has successfully blocked into one massive bill in the hopes of shutting down his resistance.
Thus we have the so-called “Coburn Omnibus,” a collection of at least forty bills that Democratic leaders are trying to shove through the U.S. Senate without any debate.
Among these bills is a $35 million federal takeover of the boxing industry, a $17 million duplicative ban on the illegal importation of primates, $700 million in random foreign aid (which the U.S. will ironically have to borrow from other foreign countries in order to provide), $100 million to mainstream media outlets to train closed caption writers, $800 million for a new “tide-watching” program (which the government already does via the National Ocean Service), $300 million for the training of “federal supervisors” (which is already included in federal agency budgets), an estimated $70 billion (with a b) to fight “global poverty,” and $3.6 billion in loans to small businesses that banks have already deemed to be unwise investments.
Basically, it’s a bunch of crap that would further balloon America’s $9.5 trillion national debt - which incidentally grew by an astounding $9 billion over a four-day period earlier this month.
That’s right - $9 billion in four days.
If passed, the “Coburn Omnibus” would grow that debt by billions more at a time when the American economy can least afford it.
In case you were wondering, we’ve got calls into both Jim DeMint and Lindsey Graham’s offices in Washington to see how South Carolina’s Senators are planning to vote on this bill.
Our sincere hope is that both will be standing with Coburn in rejecting it.
Comments»
Bravo! Incidentally what nobody wants to talk about is the bill in there called The MOTHERS Act, a pharma high five… to screen and drug mothers across the country for depression while they’re pregnant or caring for infants. As if women cannot think for themselves… please please look into this terrible bill which will actually kill women and children at taxypayer expense. go to http://www.uniteforlife.org where you can read more and help stand up against the pharmaceutical conmen and the corrupt officials trying to pass this through with no debate. (By the way, this bill passed in the House with no debate, and has never been debated or marked up in the appropriate Senate committee)