Tom Coburn: “I would be happy to answer that. I was involved in trying to get an across-the-board cut in every appropriations bill in…”

“I would be happy to answer that. I was involved in trying to get an across-the-board cut in every appropriations bill in 1996. The purpose for that is to try to control the spending so we could balance the budget. There is no question it affected priorities of mine just like it affected priorities of other people who voted on that. The decision that I made was simply, is it a more valiant effort to try to save money so we will have money to spend in something like this in the years to follow. The fact is we are going to steal another $300 or $500 billion from our children over the next 5 years in this supposed balanced budget agreement.”