Tom Coburn: “I thank Senator McCain for highlighting some of the problems with the bill. The real problem is that we last year spent…”

“I thank Senator McCain for highlighting some of the problems with the bill. The real problem is that we last year spent $434 billion of our grandkids' money that we could not come up with. We did not collect taxes; we lowered their standard of living in the future. How did we get there? We got there because we use earmarks to buy votes on appropriations bills. So we never look at the appropriations bill, we only look to see if our little thing is in it. Not all earmarks are bad. What is bad is a lack of transparency in our Government. I know, Mr. President, you have helped me in terms of the Transparency and Accountability Act, but that is all after the fact. What this bill does is create a lie. That is what it is. It is not anything less than that. We are lying to the American people that we are fixing earmarks, when we are not. The reason is, the vast majority of people in this body do not want their earmarks disclosed because it limits their ability to play the power game with the well connected who get something ahead of everybody else. The other problem with earmarks is it takes our eye off the priorities for our country. Earmarks cause us not to do what is best for the country as a whole in the long term. It makes us short-term thinkers. It makes us parochial in our interests. I challenge any Member of this body to look at the oath they took and see if it says anything about your State when you swore to uphold the Constitution and serve as a Senator.”