Word: coburn
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Senator Tom Coburn spent a good part of last Wednesday trying to stop the federal government from building bike paths. He wanted to redirect the $12 million allotted for them to shoring up U.S. bridges following the collapse of a highway bridge in Minneapolis that killed 13 people. The amendment failed 80-18. Undeterred, Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican, immediately introduced his second amendment of the day: a motion to suspend all earmarks - or pet projects often attached in secret to funding bills - until structural integrity of all U.S. bridges can be verified. There were $2 billion in earmarks...
...fact that DeMint and Coburn's amendments were defeated is nothing new in the Senate, and it does little to temper their enthusiasm as Congress rushes to finish all of the funding bills for next year. At a time when the conservative base is lamenting its choice of presidential candidates as well as the priorities of the Oval Office's current occupant, the two are the leaders of a small group of Republican hard-liners working overtime against Democrats and Republicans alike to make a firm stand against what they view as out-of-control spending...
...Since Democrats took control of Congress, DeMint has filed 82 amendments and has seen 20 of them receive roll call votes. Coburn has had 83 amendments with 22 roll call votes. Between them they've accounted for 13% of the 336 roll call votes so far this year. Compared to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's six votes and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's two, the pair are literally driving the debate on the floor...
...didn't come here to make friends, but what's happened in my case is, I've offended everyone, every special interest group. So I don't have anything else to lose now, everybody's mad, all they'll do is get madder," Coburn said. "The real problem is if we don't have some people thinking about the long term, at every turn...
...DeMint and Coburn are unhappy with a rule that would allow Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, and his committee chairmen - rather than the body?s parliamentarian - to determine whether earmark disclosure rules have been complied with. It's a technical point, admits DeMint, but a key one. "One of the reasons Americans have such a low opinion of Congress is that we pretend to do things that we don't actually do, and here we are just pretending to pass real reform," he said. "The [majority] leader can just say that no new earmarks have been added...