Tom Coburn

General Alexander, head of the NSA, has said it's around $400 billion a year.

It's not because we don't intend to.

I think it was timely and appropriate.

Masquerading as tax cuts, many of these programs are no different from any other Federal program that spends taxpayer money.

I do not think anybody has a tougher job than what the Postmaster General has, and the fact is the post office is in trouble.

I am firmly committed to getting a compromise bill that will pass both chambers and doing it forthright.

I think the Senator from California has a great solution to the problem. I was not aware of that being accepted. I ask unanimous consent to withdraw my amendment.

This bill is full of authorizations--I mean, literally, full of authorizations. This is something I have studied and looked at. I have been looking at FEMA for 8 years. We should not wait to do this. Let's do it now. It is common sense. It…

I would object to that at this point in time. I would have liked to have had 5 minutes. I have to be somewhere at 7:30. I came down here, but I wanted to make some points before I leave. I was trying to sum up.

Per the further request of Senator Schumer, I put a division in this amendment so we would have two votes on it, separating out the fisheries. Because he felt that was important, I was glad to accommodate his needs.

I ask, through the Chair, if the chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee would like for me to begin calling up amendments.

I would on this particular--I think we ought to have a recorded vote on this. That would be my request.

What we want is truth. We are not trying to gore anybody's ox. What we want to know is how we are spending tax money in tax policy.

If we cannot have transparency from the agencies when we are trying to do a good job for the American people on policy, that raises serious questions.

Until I see with real clarity an explanation, with transparency, which would include all the background information, I am going to be hesitant.

I intend to object to any unanimous consent agreement to proceed to or dispose of Calendar Number 536, Senate Bill 2215, a bill to create jobs in the United States by increasing United States exports to Africa by at least 200 percent in…

This is updating per capita damage indicators and the process for determining declarations. Oklahoma has had more declarations declared, but we haven't updated the per capita indicator for a long time, so we have had no increase in that…

That is fine. I have no choice but to accede to the Senator's wishes, so I will.

Well, I have five I was going to place pending, and I will be happy to work with the managers.

Through the Chair, I would ask the majority leader, he does not want amendments to be made pending for us to debate?

I think the short-term political gain seems to be more important for the politicians than the long-term future of our country.

There's no leadership in Washington either at the presidential level or the leadership level in Congress.

There isn't an economist in this country that thinks raising taxes is actually going to help our economy grow.

The law is such that it is that tax rates are going to go up. The question is will we keep them from going up on everybody? Or will we keep them from going up on everybody except those above $250,000? That's the law.

Playing politics for the short-term political gain may help you in the short run, but in the long run it does tremendous damage to our country.