Tom Coburn: “I rise today to discuss what we are doing and why we are doing it and the overall evaluation of this bill. We are going…”

“I rise today to discuss what we are doing and why we are doing it and the overall evaluation of this bill. We are going to run at least a $600 billion deficit this year, a real deficit. What is said out there is that it is going to be $410 billion, but it is not. We are going to take $150 billion worth of Social Security money and spend that, and then we are going to have this supplemental, which is now at $81 billion. So we are going to be at about $630 billion, $640 billion in deficit. What is that deficit? That deficit is money we don't have today, that we are going to go borrow, but we are going to ask our grandchildren to pay it back. I don't want anybody to have any misunderstanding. I believe we need to have an emergency supplemental appropriation right now. I believe it ought to be designed for emergencies--true emergencies. That is what it is here for. I believe we ought to do whatever is needed for our troops and our efforts in the war on terrorism. I also believe we need to meet the commitments in terms of catastrophic weather events and the tsunami. I think we ought to pass out of this body what can truly be spent on that in the near term. What I don't think we should be doing--and I realize I am in a minority--is spending money and authorizing money to be spent from 2007 to 2012 that is surely and obviously not an emergency.…”