Senator Coburn forces delay in vote on funding measure
Can I help it if I am proud to have Tom Coburn as one of our Senators from Oklahoma? The good doctor from Muskogee is at it again.
Anyone who has followed Coburn’s political career will know that he has two major issues that he cares deeply about. He is a fiscal hawk and wants to get the national debt under control and he believes that the American citizen has a right to know how their government operates and what they are doing on the taxpayer dime. This has caused him to be at odds with the leadership in the Senate, both Democrat and Republican. He is not above calling his own party to task if he thinks they are not doing their job. Since the Democrats have assumed power in the Senate, he is constantly at odds with Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid. I wouldn’t be surprised to discover Senator Reid has nightmares about Senator Coburn. Let’s look at his latest effort to force our government to be more open and honest in the way they do business.
The Senate has been working on a $33.5 billion funding measure for energy and water projects. Earlier in the process, Senator Coburn inserted a provision that would require all reports sent by agencies to the Senate Appropriations Committee to be made available to other lawmakers and to the general public. It first received approval in July, but was removed during Senate-House negotiations on the measure. As The Associated Press is reporting, Coburn is the sworn enemy of the Appropriations Committee and this measure would have required reports on the financial balances of the Energy Department and on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s findings about barriers to building new nuclear power plants to be posted online right away.
When the measure was removed, Coburn used a little known Senate rule to stage his protest. I’ll let The Associated Press explain.
The Senate easily beat back a Coburn filibuster of the House-Senate measure. That means debate can only go on for a maximum of 30 more hours. Typically, however, once a filibuster is blocked, the chamber moves to a final vote on the legislation fairly quickly – or it at least moves on to other business rather than simply wasting time.
But under Senate rules, any single member can force the 30 hours to run. In the current situation, that means a final vote would have to wait until about 6 p.m. Thursday.
Of course, it was to be expected that Harry Reid wouldn’t like Coburn’s tactic at all, but he will just have to live with his frustrations. This isn’t the first time he has complained about the way Coburn sticks a monkey wrench into his plans and it almost certainly will not be the last. Once Coburn wins reelection next year, he can have at it for another six years, if he doesn’t lose his own reelection bid in Nevada.
Now one may ask why Senator Coburn stoops to such levels to protest when he knows full well he can not prevent his amendment from being removed. The answer is simple. Because the Republican Party is not in the majority in the Senate, this is the only leverage he has. He clearly didn’t go to Washington to make friends, but instead to do his best to represent the people of Oklahoma and to force the leaders on Capitol Hill to run our government in an open and transparent manner.
Those in the Senate who oppose such reports being made available to the general public have some very strange reasons. One Democratic aide said doing so would keep the agencies from being as candid as they need to be when making the reports to lawmakers. This aide, who spoke anonymously, seems to think there is information that the public doesn’t need to know. I just have one question for anyone who follows that line of reasoning. Dr. Coburn said it best. “What is it we don’t want the American people to see?”
While he probably knew that his measure would be defeated it still serves a purpose. It gets politicians on the record on their positions, so while he may have failed in one respect he won on another level. Now the people may be asking themselves the same question that you posed, what is it we don’t want the American people to see?
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Sorry, that should be knew. Just wanted to let anyone out there who would attack me for my spelling error that I know the difference between new and knew.
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Thank you.
Mr Pink Eyes´s last blog ..Republicans move to cut ACORN’s federal housing funds
Coburn rocks! I think that perhaps this can be used against Harry Reid when elections come along. His numbers are in the 30s! Not too good for Harry. This is yet another example of him doing it his way and dissing the American people along the way.
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When I read this piece I considered Coburn’s action simply petty politics. I don’t know much about him other than his strict fiscal discipline and that aspect I find extremely attractive. The other thing I found a while back was his comment that the 2nd Amendment was our most important right and that I found completely ludicrous. Today, however, I read that Tom Coburn has done something with which I am in complete agreement and truly impressed — he called “hypocrites” his fellow GOP senators who fight against health care reform due to concerns about the deficit but then approve expensive earmarks for their home states. Coburn got some support from other fiscal conservatives though his suggestion was shot down by “appropriators” who need the earmarks to honor campaign pledges and retain political support. Bravo for Tom Coburn!