Tom Coburn Town Hall

Senator Tom Coburn came to town and had a townhall.  Here are a few highlights in case you missed it.

Asked about Romney’s pick of Ryan, he noted that Ryan has moral courage, a trait rare in Congress. He says what he means and has a plan.  His plan would save MC and uphold the goal of Simpson-Bowles, to reduce the deficit.  Few in Congress are willing to risk their reputation or re-election on bold leadership and that is what Ryan has.

Asked if the President can change Congress’s Laws: Yes to an extent but not the extent Obama has done with his executive orders.  The gutting of work requirements in welfare reform will not stand.  Congress can either cut funds or take the President to court to change this.  But before that is likely we will have an election.

The Postal Service is worried about market and jobs.  Coburn says their business model is broken relying on first class mail in an email era.  What a business in these circumstances would do is fix the model with less employees and outlets and drop marginal services like Saturday service.  But congress instead seeks to protect the status quo neglecting the deficits as usual. In a similar vein, job creation and the economy suffers from many things, among which is double taxation of multi-national companies (who avoid this by moving jobs overseas), and the highest corporate tax in the world, 35%. Businesses have no confidence and leave their dollars in the bank. We need to develop our energy resources.  Nat. gas is the building block of many industrial goods. So Tom asked folks to raise hands if they were worried about the future.  All hands shot up. “We need a debate about our $1.3 T deficit and our national debt which is so high it threatens a debt crisis of confidence that will jack up interest and inflation.”

Other small items: “UN Agenda 21 is dead (counting votes in Senate). We should be smart like a fox with our $6 B foreign aid. A good deal of internet sales tax is being captured by states. I’d like to see every member of Congress on Medicaid. The true purpose of AC&PP Act is to ration Health Care, not save money.  One out of 3 health dollars doesn’t go to health care right now. Obama’s birth certificate is an issue for Secretary of States.”

Someone asked, “If the Senate hasn’t passed a budget for over 3 years, how does Government operate?”  The answer is via continuing resolution.  Reid, leader of Senate doesn’t want 23 Democrat Senators to have to defend their budget votes. Hence, the real taxmaggedon is coming next year.  Is Social Security secure?  Yes, by raising the contribution maximum, retirement age, congress can make it solvent in years to come.  What the government doesn’t tell citizens is that those retiring today could have put that money in poor-return bank CD’s and gotten 4 times as much back as SS has returned. 

Amid all the political arguments, Coburn suggested we need to ask, “What’s your plan?” because without bold leadership, our debt and lack of growth won’t be addressed. This could destroy America.