On the recordJune 21, 2022
I had the very great fortune of being introduced to politics by the late Senator Tom Coburn. When he was running for Senate in 2004, he quickly gained the title of ``Doctor No'' because he was always pushing for responsible spending. He wasn't against spending; he said we just should pay for it. He wasn't against helping people; he said we should just pay for it like you do at home, like you do in your business, like you do in your cities or your States. He was ridiculed by many Members over his time in the Senate because he always pushed for fiscal conservatism, fiscal responsibility for American taxpayer dollars. In 2004, when he ran for Senate, and he spoke about this on the campaign trail, the national debt was $7.3 trillion. Here we are, 18 years later, and we are approaching $31 trillion. I would say he understood a little bit about being responsible with taxpayer dollars. As you just alluded to, there should be no pride in either one of the parties taking this acknowledgment of having a balanced budget. It should be just what we do as Congress. This should be a nonconversation. We should produce a balanced budget, as we did under Newt Gingrich's leadership. As he just acknowledged this week, it is time for us to return to the era of the 4 years where we had balanced budgets and a divided government, where the House and the Senate were Republicans and the White House was the Democrat. President Clinton knew it was the right thing to do.…
