What Did Tom Coburn Say?

Today was a Town Hall meeting with United States Senator Tom Coburn and it was an eye-opening experience.  Coburn covered myriad of topics and answered a lot of questions from the audience, including a question from yours truly – which we will discuss in a moment.

Coburn discussed the economy at the beginning and went on to talk about spending as the cause of our problems coupled with excessive taxes.  This is something I have been talking about for years now and as a business owner, I know first-hand how difficult excessive taxation can be to the bottom line.

Responding to a question from the audience concerning what the “Republicans” were going to do when they take back Congress this November to fix some of the problems we’re facing, he said he thought that was a faulty assumption and that he was not so sure the Republicans would have control come next session.  Furthermore, he said that politicians (Republicans and Democrats) make a lot of promises, but when they get to Washington, they forget about those promises and worry about getting reelected. 

Someone asked him about the war and referenced both Afghanistan and Iraq.  Coburn said that they are two separate issues and that it seems the President has said we will be out of Iraq in 2011.  He described Afghanistan as needed linking it to Al Qaeda saying we need to go to the source.  The questioner argued that none of our recent terrorists have been from Afghanistan to which Coburn replied that they might not be “from there” but that they likely trained there and that the leaders are hiding out there.  He pointed out how Afghanistan borders Pakistan and other pivotal terrorist nations. 

When asked about Immigration Coburn stated that “the glue that holds us together is the Rule of Law” (RoL).  He went on to say that when we disregard the RoL, we dismantle the confidence of the RoL.  He clearly stated that in order to control immigration we have to secure the borders (again, something I have argued from the beginning of this campaign), when he was asked if he would support a law similar to Mexico’s immigration law he emphatically said he would.  He felt amnesty was wrong for any reason and that both President Obama and President Bush had failed and refused to secure our borders had allowed the problem to become intensified.  He felt Arizona should be allowed to do what they needed to protect their state and that the federal government needs to enforce the laws it has.  He went on to say that the Balkanization of America should not be allowed to happen and that America is not about a race or an ethnicity – it’s about the RoL.

When speaking of the serious issues facing our nation, specifically the economy he said that the problem is the politicians in DC.  That nearly 70% of those in Congress have never done anything but work in politics and have no real experience.  Going on to say that career politicians are killing our country.  Coburn described how he is a citizen first and a legislator second, that those in DC often have no clue what the real world issues are.  Does this sound familiar?  Coburn described, in these short sentences, the problems that I will repair when elected to Congress.  Most of the candidates for Oklahoma’s 5th District are emblematic of the problems Coburn describes.  There is no question that we have more career politicians than we know what to do with and now, they are trying to paint themselves as “businessmen” but we all know that they can’t fool us with their slick rhetoric.

When speaking about the budget and pay raises in DC he said Congress last had a raise in 2008 but that they should be given NO new raises or cost of living adjustments until they fix the problems and have a balanced budget.  He said that the average government employee’s salary is one and a half times that of the average household income for Oklahomans.

Coburn said that he supports the concept that ONLY those who can vote for you should be able to donate to a campaign (which is what I have done with my campaign and will continue to do).

He said he did not think lobbyists were a big problem, but rather that our problem is those in DC who don’t have to live within a budget.  He described how his office is given a budget and every year he has is one of the few U.S. Senators who have returned money that has been unused.

Coburn also said that we get the government we deserve, that a lack of involvement in the political process has given us the government we have.  He said when you try to operate out of anger it is short lived, and that anger spikes up and back down.  But when you operate out of fear, it stays until whatever is causing you to have fear is removed.  Further stating that fear can be a positive motivator and that this fall he expects to have huge turnouts at the polls because of that fear.

He says when picking who to vote for that real world experience should be an important factor and that we are in trouble because we don’t have a citizen legislature.  We have politicians who have no real experience. 

So you see, Tom Coburn has described my campaign, many of my thoughts and my goals for the Oklahoma’s 5th Congressional District.  It was refreshing to hear someone else who has been elected to Washington with the same spirit as I possess – one of reform and returning government back to the people.