Tom Coburn: “I come to the floor first to meet those two who were just debating to wish them a Merry Christmas and a happy holiday…”

“I come to the floor first to meet those two who were just debating to wish them a Merry Christmas and a happy holiday season. This is a season, a time about giving. When you give something, most often it costs you. It is called sacrifice. It is what our Nation was built on. It is the very heritage that we have as a nation, that we sacrifice to do what is in the best long-term interests of our country. The chairman outlined the unfunded liability that is facing this Nation between now and 2070. He gave a figure of $51 trillion. That is an underestimate of what the true unfunded liability is for our country. We just added $8.7 trillion with the Medicare Part D Program. But it is such a large number we have a hard time getting our hands on it. One of the ways to get our hands on it is to think about what it means per individual, and $51 trillion in unfunded liabilities means every man, woman, and child in this country today is responsible for $171,000. Think about that. That is more than the net worth of the country. Why do I raise that? Because the debate we are having about this bill and movement forward and the comments about how you judge whether somebody is compassionate is based on how you treat those less than you and those who are going to follow you. I believe everybody in the Senate would agree that leaving $171,000 worth of obligation for every man, woman, and child in this country is inappropriate. It belies the heritage of this country.…”