Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) on Health Care — Part 1

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) on Health Care — Part 2

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) on Health Care — Part 3

Background Articles and Videos

Tom Coburn

“…Thomas Allen “Tom” Coburn, M.D. (born March 14, 1948), is an American politician and medical doctor. A member of the Republican Party, he currently serves as the junior U.S. Senator from Oklahoma. Coburn was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994 as part of the “Republican Revolution.” He declined to run for re-election in 2000, but re-entered the political arena in 2004 to run for Senate. Coburn is a staunch conservative, known for views opposing pork barrel projects, supporting term limits, and holding a strong anti-abortion position. …”

“…Coburn was one of the most conservative members of the House. He supported “reducing the size of the federal budget” and opposed abortion and supported the proposed V-chip legislation.

Despite representing a heavily Democratic district, Coburn was reelected in 1996 (even as Bill Clinton easily carried the district) and 1998 without difficulty.^[4][5]

While he served in the House, he earned a reputation as a “maverick” due to his frequent battles with House Speaker Newt Gingrich.^{[citation needed]} Most of these stand-offs stemmed from his belief that the Republican caucus was moving toward the political left and away from the more conservative “Contract With America” policy proposals that had placed the Republicans into power in Congress in 1994 for the first time in 40 years. Specifically, Coburn was concerned that the Contract’s term limits had not been implemented, and that the Republicans were continuing the excessive federal spending that they had so vigorously opposed when the Democrats were in the majority.^{[citation needed]}

Coburn endorsed conservative activist and former diplomat Alan Keyes in the 2000 Republican presidential primaries, although he supported George W. Bush after the nomination was sewn up. Coburn’s congressional district returned to the Democratic fold, as attorney Brad Carson easily defeated a Republican endorsed by Coburn. After leaving the House and returning to private medical practice, Coburn wrote a book in 2003, with ghostwriter John Hart^{[citation needed]}, about his experiences in Congress called Breach of Trust: How Washington Turns Outsiders Into Insiders. The book detailed Coburn’s perspective on the internal Republican Party debates over the “Contract With America” and displayed his disdain for career politicians. Some of the figures he criticized (such as Gingrich) were already out of office at the time of publishing, but others (such as former House Speaker Dennis Hastert) remained very influential in Congress, which resulted in speculation that some congressional Republicans wanted no part of Coburn’s return to politics.

Senate career

In 2004, Coburn chose to challenge the establishment Republican candidate for the open Senate seat being vacated by Don Nickles. Former Oklahoma City Mayor Kirk Humphreys (the favorite of the state and national Republican establishment) and Corporation Commissioner Bob Anthony joined the field before Coburn. However, Coburn easily won the primary with 61% of the vote to Humphreys’s 25%. In the general election, he faced Brad Carson, a Democrat who had succeeded him in the 2nd District and was giving up his seat after only two terms. During the Senate campaign, Coburn said that the “homosexual agenda” was the biggest threat to American freedom.^[6]

Coburn emphasized fighting “pork” and “corruption” in Washington. His focus on “cutting spending” and his reputation for fighting the practice of awarding federal dollars to “special interest causes” won him many supporters who disagreed with him on other issues.

He also promised to maintain his medical practice in Muskogee and return there during the weekend as he had while serving in the House.

In the election, Coburn won by a margin of 53% to Carson’s 42%. While Carson routed Coburn in the heavily Democratic 2nd District, Coburn swamped Carson in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area and the closer-in Tulsa suburbs. Coburn won the state’s two largest counties, Tulsa and Oklahoma, by a combined 86,000 votes — more than half of his overall margin of 166,000 votes.

Coburn’s Senate voting record is as conservative as his House record. He received a perfect 100% rating from the American Conservative Union for the year 2005. Coburn has a reputation for stalling measures in the Senate, to the chagrin of members of both major parties and many people outside of Oklahoma.^[7]

^{…”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Coburn}

Senator Tom Coburn talks about his health care plan pt.1

Senator Tom Coburn talks about his health care plan pt.2

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