Tom Coburn: “I want to respond. First, I think it is unfortunate when somebody is in the chair that such a statement was made without…”

“I want to respond. First, I think it is unfortunate when somebody is in the chair that such a statement was made without thankfully someone else being in the Chamber to allow me the opportunity to respond to it. There is a lot wrong with the process in the Senate and I am sure the distinguished Senator from Nevada probably has an intellectual heads-up on me. I do not doubt that. But what is wrong is deception, not policy changes, and you have never heard this Senator say anything about problems with putting policy riders on appropriations bills. What I have been very clear about from the day I arrived in the Senate is that there should not be earmarks that are used in politically beneficial ways for individual Members of the body because what that does, in fact, is put the country second and us first. It puts the next election ahead of the next generation. To equate that with policy changes that go along and use my position as somebody who is fighting hard to change the appropriations process and to use me as an example, because you may not at this time be happy--I am not happy we are here, I am not happy that anything gets stuck on anything, but I also recognize the history of things that have gone on in this body and the other body and how at the end of a session things get tacked on to lots of things. I will not be used, nor will I allow my position to be used, to wedge other people into thinking I am inconsistent, and I will defend that.…”