Tom Coburn: “I want to make a couple more points. One of the questions that we have not spent time with is holding the administration…”

“I want to make a couple more points. One of the questions that we have not spent time with is holding the administration accountable for why it should cost $24 to count for every man, woman, and child in this country. Now, think about that. The State of Oklahoma has 3 million people. What is 24 times three? It is $72 million to count the people in Oklahoma. Give me a break. Or give me that contract. I will leave Congress right now. Give me the contract. I will become a multi-millionaire just from counting the people. The cost to count is abhorrent to anybody that is out there who knows anything about putting forth the process. We use this process not just to count but to employ a lot of people who otherwise would not have jobs. That is a social good. I do not disagree with that. But to have a $24-per-person cost in this country to count says we are much more inefficient. And that is an indication of the rest of our government which says we could surely find this $4.5 billion somewhere else.”