Tom Coburn: “Mr. Speaker, in about 6 months from now, I will be back in my medical practice in Oklahoma. The one thing I will not…”

“Mr. Speaker, in about 6 months from now, I will be back in my medical practice in Oklahoma. The one thing I will not miss is a lack of integrity and straightforwardness about when we discuss these issues. Everybody in this House knows that the funding in Labor-HHS bills have climbed faster than in any other thing that we have funded in this House under Republican control. We are $40 billion more under this appropriation bill than we were in 1995. There is $14.3 billion more for children, for health, for education to be available, to be spent in 2001 than was available last year. And for anyone to come to the House floor and to say that there is a cut in programs, it is not only untrue but it smirches the integrity of this entire House. We have a bill that spends much more than I want to spend on many of these programs because the accountability is not there, but we are going to spend the money to fulfill the needs even though the accountability is not there. It is important for us to make sure when we talk about priorities that what we are really talking about is a difference in the amount of increase in spending in priorities, not in cutting any major program. My heart aches for my grandchildren, because if we progress in this House with statements of untruth for political demagoguery purposes, we do neither party any positive benefit and we undermine the very value of this institution.”