Sen. Coburn denies default risk: ‘There’s no such thing as a debt ceiling’ (via Raw Story )You have to give Oklahoma Republican US Senator Tom Coburn high marks for consistency, if not compassion.
In the face of a major tornado disaster in his home state, that has taken the lives of 24 Oklahomans, including at least 9 children in a devastated elementary school, Coburn says he won’t support disaster relief for his home state unless the budget is cut elsewhere.
Yes, Coburn is taking his own constituents hostage as budget-cutting human shields.
It’s not the first time Coburn has taken hostages. Last winter, Coburn joined Oklahoma’s other far-right GOP Senator, Jim Inhofe, in voting against the Hurricane Sandy relief bill.AmericaBlog
Republicans don’t really care about spending money like a (or for a) drunken sailor, so long as it’s for tax cuts and the Defense Department. Then after their years of massive spending bankrupt us – like Reagan did, and then Bush II – suddenly the Republicans are deficit hawks, asking us to cut all of our programs while leaving theirs in tact.
“It doesn’t really matter what happens at the end of this year because ultimately the numbers and the bond holders throughout the world will determine what we’ll spend and what we won’t. So, we can play the political game that is being played out in Washington right now or we can be absolutely honest with the American people and say, ‘Medicare is going bankrupt, Social Security disability will be bankrupt in two years, Social Security trust fund will be bankrupt in five years, Social Security total will be bankrupt in 16,17 years.’”
“The fact is we are spending money we don’t have on things we don’t absolutely need,” he concluded. “And there’s no grownups in Washington that will say, ‘Timeout, stop the politics, let’s have a compromise rather than play the game through the press and hurt the country.’ We’re already going to get another debt downgrade just from what’s happening now because nobody in positions of power are willing to do what’s important and necessary for our country.”
