Weekly Opinion/Editorial

NOT

by Steve Fair

Oklahoma citizens may have lost out economically last week because our two United States Senators have integrity. Neither Senators Jim Inhofe nor Tom Coburn were willing to sell their vote on the health care bill in exchange for preferential treatment for their constituents. That was not the case with several of their Democrat colleagues.
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Rest assured, there will be short sighted people in the Sooner state who will criticize Coburn and Inhofe for failing to ‘bring home the bacon’ like the more aggressive, less principled lawmakers who were willing to sell their vote. But until Congress is full of people who are looking out for the average guy, American citizens are the long-term losers in these ‘vote auctions’ the Democrats are conducting.
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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid,( D-NV) secured the 60th vote – that of Nebraska Democrat Ben Nelson -- for promising $100 million in Medicaid assistance for the Cornhusker state. In effect, the other 49 states will subsidize Nebraska. Previously, Reid made a $600 million deal for Vermont, a $500 million boondoggle for Massachusetts, and Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu, (D-LA) committed her vote for $300 million. In addition, Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd, (D-CT) has reportedly received $100 Million in the health care bill to build a hospital at the University of Connecticut.
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Nelson’s actions will not just impact Nebraska, but all states. Oklahoma State Senate Pro Tem Glenn Coffee said, “Oklahoma taxpayers – and citizens of Texas, Arkansas, Kansas and other states will pay in multiple ways for years to come for Harry Reid’s outrageous Christmas gifts to his fellow Democrat senators,” Coffee said. “The favoring of one state and its Senator at the expense of other states and their taxpayers is unjust.”
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Nelson’s ‘deal’ is not likely to stand up to Constitutional scrutiny. U.S. Senator Lindsay Graham, (R-SC) said, “Legally, I think other states can make a constitutional challenge. Instead of negotiating in public, there was a back-room deal. One state cannot have a different plan than the other forty-nine. I think Nelson sold his vote for nothing.”
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Whether the deal stands up or not, the point is no deal should have been made. Senators should not be auctioning off their vote to the highest bidder. With an economy on the verge of collapse, a national debt that has grown by twenty five percent the last year and a weak dollar, America needs political leaders with the courage and wherewithal to say no to earmarks and bribes. Abramoff is serving time for bribing elected officials with private money, but Reid is using our money to accomplish much the same thing.
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When Senator Coburn said about the upcoming vote, "What the American people ought to pray is that somebody can't make the vote tonight. That's what they ought to pray," the liberals went nuts!
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They accused Coburn of wanting Senator Robert Byrd, (D-WV) to die. The ninty three year old Byrd has to be wheeled into the Senate chamber to cast his votes. Known as the ‘king of pork’ in Congress, Byrd has never excercised fiscal restrainst in his fifty plus year political career. Coburn never mentioned Byrd by name during his floor speech, but Democrat Senator Dick Durbin, (D-Illinois) took issue with Coburn’s remarks saying, "I don't think it's appropriate to be invoking prayer to wish misfortune on a colleague. I've tried to reach out to him. He is my friend and I have worked with him but this statement goes too far. The simple reality is this: we are becoming more coarse and more divided here."

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Who is really who is at fault because of this ‘coarse and divided’ enviroment? Is it the Republicans who have not been given any imput into ‘the most important piece of legislation since Social Security.’ The Democrats have not allowed any meaningful debate or discussion on this bill and some even admit they are unsure what is in it.

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The impact of the federal health care bill on the Oklahoma state budget could be catastrophic according to State Senate Pro-Temp Coffee. “While Harry Reid sells his soul and financial indulgences for the votes of his fellow Democrat senators this Christmas season, all he will leave for Oklahoma taxpayers will be a multi-year, multi-million dollar lump of coal, and a cumbersome, unaffordable system that will disenfranchise more citizens than it will help,” Coffee said. “This is the ultimate Dirty Santa gift that we can’t pass off to someone else.”
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“Aside from the obvious bad policy that is being foisted on an unwilling American public, the financial realities of this Christmas catastrophe are unconscionable,” Coffee continued. “And the right-thinking, responsible folks here in Oklahoma are helpless to stop it.“We can only hope some sort of sense will overtake those leading the charge to push this disaster on the public, and that Oklahomans – Democrats and Republicans alike – will make their voices heard in Washington,” Coffee added. “We can count our blessings during this season of joy for Oklahoma’s federal delegation, but Washington needs a little more Oklahoma common sense,” he concluded.

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The Portland Liberal Examiner disagrees with Coffee about Inhofe and Coburn. They write: “Thank you, Oklahoma voters, for giving the rest of America the worst Senator pair in the country. Do these two represent the citizens of Oklahoma, or their own self-interests?”

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Yes, Coburn and Inhofe are ours and represent Oklahoma common sense values. We are blessed to have them, and so is America, if nothing else because they are ‘not for sale!’