I yield the floor to the Honorable Senator Coburn. It's nice to know someone is hearing us...
Subject: Senator Coburn's remarks regarding spending cuts
Date: Thu,
17 Feb 2011 19:20:01 -0700
Sen. Tom Coburn is an MD (general practitioner) and Senator from
Oklahoma.
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"We are going in exactly the wrong direction. We ought to be standing
on the principles that made this country great. There ought to be a
review of every program in the Federal Government that is not
effective, that is not efficient, that is wasteful or fraudulent, and
we ought to get rid of it right now. We ought to say, you're gone, to
be able to pay for a real stimulus plan that might, in fact, have some
impact.
I would be remiss if I didn't remind everybody that next week we are
going to hear from the Obama administration wanting another $500
billion. Outside of this, they are going to want another $500 billion
to handle the banking system. Still not fixing the real disease - the
pneumonia - we are going to treat the fever or treat the cough, but we
are not going to treat the real disease.
Until we treat the real disease, this is pure waste. It is worse than
pure waste.. It is morally reprehensible, because it steals the
future of the next two generations.
I am going to wind up here and finish, but I wanted to spend some time
to make sure the American people know what is in this bill. I think
once they know what is in this bill, they would reject it out of hand.
Let me read for my colleagues some of the things that are in this bill...
The biggest earmark in history is in this bill. There is $2 billion
in this bill to build a coal plant with zero emissions. That would be
great, maybe, if we had the technology, but the greatest brains in the
world sitting at MIT say we don't have the technology yet to do that.
Why would we build a $2 billion power plant we don't have the
technology for that we know will come back and ask for another $2
billion and another $2 billion and another $2 billion when we could
build a demonstration project that might cost $150 million or $200
million? There is nothing wrong with having coal-fired plants that
don't produce pollution; I am not against that. Even the Washington
Post said the technology isn't there. It is a boondoggle. Why would
we do that?
Tonight, we eliminated a $246 million payback for the large movie
studios in Hollywood .
We are going to spend $88 Million to study whether we ought to buy a
new ice breaker for the Coast Guard. You know what. The Coast Guard
needs a new ice breaker. Why do we need to spend $88 million? They
have two ice breakers now that they could retrofit and fix and come up
with equivalent to what they needed to and not spend the $1 billion
they are going to come back and ask for, for another ice breaker, so
why would we spend $88 million studying that?
We are going to spend $448 million to build the Department of Homeland
Security a new building. We have $1.3 trillion worth of empty
buildings right now, and because it has been blocked in Congress we
can't sell them, we can't raze them, we can't do anything, but we are
going to spend money on a new building here in Washington .
We are going to spend another $248 million for new furniture for that
building; a quarter of a billion dollars for new furniture. What
about the furniture the Department of Homeland Security has now?
These are tough times. Should we be buying new furniture? How about
using what we have? That is what a family would do. They would use
what they have. They wouldn't go out and spend $248 million on
furniture.
How about buying $600 million worth of hybrid vehicles? Do you know
what I would say? Right now times are tough; I would rather Americans
have new cars than Federal employees have new cars. What is wrong
with the cars we have? Dumping $600 million worth of used vehicles on
the used vehicle market right now is one of the worst things we could
do. Instead, we are going to spend $600 million buying new cars for
Federal employees..
There is $400 million in here to prevent STDs .. I have a lot of
experience with that. I have delivered 4,000 babies.. We don't need
to spend $400 million on STDs. What we need to do is properly educate
about the infection rates and the effectiveness of methods of
prevention. That doesn't take a penny more. You can write that on
one piece of paper and teach every kid in this country, but we don't
need to spend $400 million on it. It is not a priority.
How about $1.4 billion for rural waste disposal programs? That might
even be somewhat stimulative. New sewers. That might create jobs.
How about $150 million for a Smithsonian museum? Tell me how that
helps get us out of a recession. Tell me how that is a priority.
Would the average American think that is a priority that we ought to
be mortgaging our kids' future to spend another $150 million at the
Smithsonian?
How about $1 billion for the 2010 census? So everybody knows, the
census is so poorly managed that the census this year is going to cost
twice what it cost 10 years ago, and we wasted $800 million on a
contract because it was no-bid that didn't perform. Nobody got fired,
no competitive bidding, and we blew $800 million.
We have $75 million for smoking cessation activities, which probably
is a great idea, but we just passed a bill-the SCHIP bill - that we
need to get 21 million more Americans smoking (and paying tobacco
taxes) to be able to pay for that bill. That doesn't make sense.
How about $200 million for public computer centers at community
colleges? Since when is a community college in my State a recipient
of Federal largesse? Is that our responsibility? I mean, did we talk
with Dell and Hewlett-Packard and say, How do we make you all do
better? Is there not a market force that could make that better?
Will we actually buy on a true competitive bid? No, because there is
nothing that requires competitive bidding in anything in this bill.
There is nothing that requires it. It is one of the things President
Obama said he was going to mandate the Federal Government, but there
is no competitive bidding in this bill at all.
We have $10 million to inspect canals in urban areas. Well, that will
put 10 or 15 people to work. Is that a priority for us right now?
There is $6 billion to turn Federal buildings into green buildings.
That is a priority, versus somebody getting a job outside of
Washington , a job that actually produces something, that actually
increases wealth?
How about $500 million for State and local fire stations? Where do
you find in the Constitution us paying for local fire stations within
our (the federal government) realm of prerogatives? None of it is
competitively bid - not a grant program.
Next is $1.2 billion for youth activities. Who does that employ?
What does that mean?
How about $88 million for renovating the public health service
building? You know, if we could sell half of the $1.3 trillion worth
of properties we have, we could take care of every Federal building
requirement and backlog we have..
Then there's $412 million for CDC buildings and property. We spent
billions on a new center and headquarters for CDC. Is that a
priority? Building another Government building instead of - if we are
going to spend $412 million on building buildings, let's build one
that will produce something, one that will give us something.
How about $850 million for that most "efficient'' Amtrak that hasn't
made any money since 1976 and continues to receive $2 billion or $3
billion a year in subsidies?
Here is one of my favorites: $75 million to construct a new "security
training'' facility for State Department security officers. We have
four other facilities already available to train them. But it is not
theirs. They want theirs. By the way, it is going to be in West
Virginia ... I wonder how that got there? So we are going to build a
new training facility that duplicates four others that we already have
that could easily do what we need to do. But because we have a
stimulus package, we are going to add in oink pork.
How about $200 million in funding for a lease - not buying, but a
lease of alternative energy vehicles on military installations?
We are going to bail out the States on Medicaid. Total all of the
health programs in this, and we are going to transfer $150 billion out
of the private sector and we are going to move it to the Federal
Government. You talk about back dooring national health care! Henry
Waxman has to be smiling big today. He wants a single-payer
Government-run health care system. We are going to move another $150
billion to the Federal Government from the private sector.
We are going to eliminate fees on loans from the Small Business
Administration. You know what that does? That pushes productive
capital to unproductive projects. It is exactly the wrong thing to
do.
Then there is $160 million to the Job Corps Program - But not for 20
jobs and not to put more people in the Job Corps but to construct or
repair buildings.
We are going to spend $524 million for information technology upgrades
that the Appropriations Committee claims will create 388 jobs. If you
do the math on that, that is $1.5 million a job. Don't you love the
efficiency of Washington thinking?
We are going to create $79 billion in additional money for the States,
a "slush fund,'' to bail out States and provide millions of dollars
for education costs. How many of you think that will ever go away?
Once the State education programs get $79 billion over 2 years, do you
think that will ever go away? They cry and hue of taking our money
away - even though it was a stimulus and supposed to be limited, it
will never go away. So we will continue putting that forward until
our kids have grandkids of their own.
There is about $47 billion for a variety of energy programs that are
primarily focused on renewable energy. I am fine with spending that.
But we ought to get something for it. There ought to be measurable
results. There are none. It is pie in the sky, saying we will throw
some money at it.
Let me conclude by saying we are at a seminal moment in our country.
We will either start living within the confines of realism and
responsibility or we will blow it and we will create the downfall of
the greatest Nation that ever lived. This bill is the start of that
downfall. To abandon a market-oriented society and transfer it to a
Soviet-style, government-centered, bureaucratic-run and mandated
program, that is the thing that will put the stake in the heart of
freedom in this country.
I hope the American people know what is in this bill. I am doing
everything I can to make sure they know. But more important, I hope
somebody is listening who will treat the pneumonia we are faced with
today, which is the housing and mortgage markets. It doesn't matter
how much money we spend in this bill. It is doomed to failure unless
we fix that problem first. Failing that, we will go down in history
as the Congress that undermined the future and vitality of this
country. Let it not be so."
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