Tom Coburn: “I will be happy to yield in a moment. I understand the importance of Senators directing the bureaucracy. The problem is…”

“I will be happy to yield in a moment. I understand the importance of Senators directing the bureaucracy. The problem is the bureaucracy is too big. Instead of us doing the oversight we need to be doing to control the bureaucracy so they have a priority, we supersede it because we don't want to do the hard work of oversight, of holding them accountable. We need to be doing oversight. We need to be looking at every individual. I will match my service as Senator, both for my constituency and my service in terms of my field representatives and the work they do. I will match my service in terms of traveling and listening in Oklahoma. I have been in every area of Oklahoma the first 9 months of this year-- every area. I have missed four counties. The implication that I don't listen, the implication that I don't work in my Senate position I take offense to. I will tell that to the Senator from Missouri. Nobody will outwork me in my job; nobody. I will do what is necessary to do what I believe the people of Oklahoma sent me here to do, which is to help turn around the ship that is going to drown our grandchildren financially. We can try to relate the sculpture park to a water treatment plant, but everybody in the country knows there is no connection between those two. There are necessities of life, there are priorities, and actually the debate is about priorities. It is not about whether a Senator should be directing things. I haven't said don't direct anything.…”