mr. coburn: let me reclaim my time. mr. kerry: absolutely. mr. coburn: there are absolutely no cuts in either what senator reid or speaker boehner proposed in the discretionary spending. the spending will rise $832 billion over the next two years -- ten years in the discretionary accounts. now, only in washington is that a cut. and, quite frankly, i'm willing to work with my colleagues. i've been out there. i say we have to move and eliminate some of these loopholes, that we have to reform the tax code. i'm willing to take the heat from my side on that. i don't have any problem. what i'm not willing to take any more is a senate that won't work on the details of the specific problems. and what i'm trying to do is to outline where the problems are. where is the -- and we didn't do it when we were in charge either, senator kerry. there's been a failure of leadership in this country, in this body to attack the very problems. when we have 47 job-training programs and none of them are working well, because that's what we do know, because the very few ti

mr. coburn: let me reclaim my time. mr. kerry: absolutely. mr. coburn: there are absolutely no cuts in either what senator reid or speaker boehner proposed in the discretionary spending. the spending will rise $832 billion over the next two years -- ten years in the discretionary accounts. now, only in washington is that a cut. and, quite frankly, i'm willing to work with my colleagues. i've been out there. i say we have to move and eliminate some of tse loopholes, that we have to reform the tax code. i'milling to take the heat from my side on tt. i don't have any problem. what i'm not willing to take any more is a senate that won't work on the details of the specific problems. and what i'm trying to do is to outline where the problems are. where is the -- and we didn't do it when we were in charge either, senator kerry. there's been a failure of leadership in this country, in this body to attack the very problems. when we have 47 job-training programs and none of them are working well, because that's at we do know, because the very few times they

mr. coburn: let me reclaim my time. mr. kerry: absolutely. mr. coburn: there are absolutely no cuts in either what senator reid or speaker boehner propod in the discretionary spending. the spending will rise $832 billion over the next two years -- ten years in the diretionary accounts. now, only in washington is that a cut. and, quite frankly, i'm willing to work with my colleagues. i've been out there. i say we have to move and eliminate some of these loopholes, that we have to reform the tax code. i'm willing to take the heat from my side on that. i don't have any problem. what i'm not willing to take any more is a senate that won't work on the details of the specific problems. and what i'm trying to do is to outline where the problems are. where is the -- and we didn't do it when we were in chae either, senator kerry. there's been a failure of leadership in this country, in this body to attack the very problems. when we have 47 job-training programs and none of them are working well, because that's what we do know, because the very few times th

mr. coburn: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. coburn: let me update my colleague. do i plan to call up this amendment, and i do plan to ask for a vote on it because it is important. what has happened -- and i'll call the amendment up in a moment. what has happened? the senator from arizona has had the disease melanoma, cancerous melanoma, at his age. and we kind of know somebody at his age, if they have large amounts of sun exposure over long periods of time on birth marks you can develop medical know massachusetts there is causation re -- you can develop melanoma. i've also had melanoma and what science also knows is you can develop it without exposure. what happened in the v.a. is we've taken and gotten way from causation and gone to any association that could ever be made. we also know i'm a survivor of colon cancer. what we know is your risk for colon cancer goes way up if you eat a highly refined diet, very few vegetables and have that kind of a diet associated with also high levels of sugar. i didn't have any of those things

mr. coburn: thank you. we have a lot in front of us as a nation, and my perception is that our country is anxious, and i think they have good reason to be anxious, but it doesn't have anything to do with the debt ceiling and the debt ceiling debate. they should be anxious because we're not listening. we're not paying attention to the anxiety and fear and worry that the country they know and the freedoms and liberties that they have are slipping away from them. and they're slipping away because we're putting america in a debtor's prison. we're slowly losing our ability to make free choices about our future because we failed to be responsible in the past with the money that the american people have given us. we've had a lot of debates and a lot of statements in the last couple of weeks, but no one ever talks about what the real problem is. the real problem is we're spending money on things with good intentions, that don't accomplish their purposes. we're spending money that we don't have on things that we don

mr. coburn on the floor and i assume he's the first speaker on the republican side? thank you. i thank the senator for his comments on the budget situation. for the many watching this at home and listening to this debate, this is an historic weekend where we have an opportunity, in fact, a challenge to come forward and craft a bipartisan solution which is good for this country and avoids, avoids the disaster that would happen tuesday night if we fail to extend our debt ceiling. the united states of america has never failed to extend its debt, not once. and in the last 72 years since we enacted this law, we have had requests from presidents on both sides of the aisle to extend the debt ceiling 89 times. 55 times by republicans, 34 times by democrats. the president who holds the record for extending the debt ceiling, president ronald reagan. 18 times in eight years. tripling the national debt. not once, not one time did he face what we're facing here, a threat from the other side of the aisle that if we don't give in to their request, we will default on our national debt. that wo

mr. coburn included in that three on the republican side, there's a very positive step forward. haven't yet seen all the specifics of what they've recommended, but clearly, it mirrors the plan that was put forward by mr. bolwles and formr senator alan simpson asking everybody to take part getting a handle on the debt which conference us and it's essential and everybody agrees. the question is how do you do it? who gets hurt jt do you as the amendment on flort or the bill on the floor of the house of representatives today, present the wealthiest among us? protect the tax loopholes that exist throughout our code and require a two-thirds vote to repeal any of them. a protection of the best office in america while a majority vote would undermine least well off in our country. i don't think that's the direction americans want to go. >> and i think that's why i think senator coburn's plan was so interesting. he basically said, i'll go for the tax code in opposition to the grover norquist fringe republican group that you're dealing with in the house. senator coburn, i think, is a littl

mr. coburn: i'm sorry. i will finish up in just a short period of time then. the presiding officer: absolutely. mr. coburn: the question then comes over why we would not allow the states to decide whether they think we utah to have -- we ought to have a balanced budget. it's true, it will take five to seven years for it to be fully effectuated. but the sooner we start down the road and give the states the option of saying, we think you ought to live under the same rules we live under -- we have all sorts of reasons why we shouldn't have a balanced budget amendment. but not one of them makes sense. not one of them fits with common sense. not one of them does anything except continue down the process and the road on which we are today. so, again, i would say, as you hear the debate today, think about the real disease that we have rather than listening to the symptoms. the des is we'r disease is we're -- we have a tax code that costs a quarter after trillion dollars a year just to comply with, and then still isn't fair. and yet we won't address the real decease a

mr. coburn: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. coburn: thank you.and i wanted to spend some time talking about what is coming before us saturday morning. as a member of the gang of six, i'm wanting us to solve our problem. but the best way to solve that problem would be the bill that's going to be voted on on saturday morning. and why is that? you know, we're borrowing $4 billion a day. and i've got enough gray hair to know that regardless of all the good intentions and regardless of all the statements of the members on the floor that we'll never live within our means in washington until we are forced to live within our means. and just because a constitutional amendment would take probably four years to pa pass, given what the american people think about it, isn't a reason not to go on and do it regardless of what we do about our short-term problem coming up august 2. so the very fact that people would say, we're not gonna pass the cut, cap and balance because it won't happen in a period of time is exactly the same approach that got us $14.3 trillio

mr. coburn: i've been listening to the debate this morning, and it's really concerning to me because as ahysician, i'm trained to diagnose disease. disease, if you break that word up is dis-ease. we're not at ease. and i hear us talking all around. i listened to the senior senator from new york very carefully and what he had to say. i wanted to spend a few minutes actually disputing what he had to say because the premise, he said, was that if we don't raise taxes, that the vital things that are legitimate roles for the federal government would have to be eliminated. and i find that very curious, because what is lacking in the senate body today is an actual knowledge of all the things that we're doing. and i go back to march when the g.a.o. report came out on the levels of duplication within the federal government. and that report was eye opening to many senators. and the fact is that report only covered the first third of the federal government. i've long said during the past seven years in the senate that one of our problems is we don't -- the government is so big, we don't know everythi

mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator. next will be senator coburn. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i am were read that we have put north korean at -- i am extremely worried that we have put north korea at risk by including them in the trade agreement. with that, i will conclude my comments. >> let me start by saying it is important that we export our products and not our jobs. that is the basic philosophy for me in moving forward. i would like to applaud the administration for making improvements related to manufacturing and allowing us to open up our products and produce them here and be able to send them to south korean. let me speak specifically today about trade adjustment assistance. it is unfortunate that we are in a situation where something that has always been bipartisan is now something that seems to be caught in a protestant by -- partisan divide. taa is a tool for workers that have been outsourced. it is part of a deal the united states has made. what is a small business or a farmer, there are people who are caught in the middle of this. we have traditionally said we wo

i would ask that senator coburn be recognized at 5:30 for up to 30 minutes. mrs. boxer: reserving the right to object and i won't object. i would like to get 20 minutes to speak following senator coburn. mr. reid: sounds good to me. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. reid: the rest of you senators will be limited to ten minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: mr. president, one of the things -- at 6:30, i would ask unanimous consent that i be recognized. the presiding officer: without objection. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from kansas. a senator: madam president, i understand that we're in morning hour, and i understand that i may speak on the senate floor for up to ten minutes. the presiding officer: we're in a quorum call. mr. moran: i would ask that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. the senator from kansas. mr. moran: madam president, thank you very much. i've spoken several times over the last s

coburn's return to bipartisan group known as the gang of six. which has a new deal to make spending cut with increased tax revenue which mr. obama insisted on. >> we now have a bipartisan group of senators that agree with the balanced approach. and we have the american people who agree with the balanced approach. >> reporter: draft of the agreement showed it would "slash the nation's deficit by $3.7 trillion or $3.# trillion over ten years." a trillion of that would come from the additional tax revenue. overaum tax rates would be lower and the alternative minimum tax would be killed. meanwhile, the house prepared to vote on the so-called "cut, cap and balance" plan, which the senate was unlikely to pass. and mr. obama vowed to veto. speaker boehner was undeterred. >> i'm not going to go out of my way to say or predict the senate can't pass this. there is nothing the senate can't do when they want to. >> reporter: the president's aides called "cut, cap and balance" political theater and president obama said it's the last diversion we have time for. >> we don't have any more time to engage in symbolic gestures and we don't h

mr. daley, thank you, as always. >> thank you. >> joining me, a member of the senate finance committee and so-called gang of six, negotiator senator tom coburn of oklahoma. senator, welcome back to "meet the press." >> good morning. how are you? >> i'm fine. i want to get your reaction to what you heard from bill daley here from the white house this morning, which is, the president will not sign a deal that results in only a temporary increase of the debt limit. he wants to see something that gets us through 2013. >> well, first of all, i think that's a ridiculous position, because that's what he's going to get presented with. that's the compromise way through that's going to build the compromise. david, everybody's talking about the symptoms of our problem instead of the real disease. the government's twice the size it was ten years ago. it's 30% bigger than it was when president obama became president. the problem is, is we're spending way too much money, and it's not hard to cut it without hurting entitlement benefits, but we don't have anybody that wants to do that without getting a tax increase. >> all right, well, i want to get to taxe

mr. obama at 5:00 p.m. eastern time. so clearly a busy afternoon shaping up at the white house. tell you what, i want to take you now straight to senator coburn who is live for me. sir, good to have you on the program. let me just begin with this. we mentioned these meetings at the white house. my question is, is the fact that there's a democrats only meeting happening now at the white house, does that, sir, signal to you that we have entered a new phase in these talks, these debt reduction talks that the president is now starting the process of essentially selling your gang of six proposal to his people, that the process of the arm twisting and the lining of support is under way? >> oh, i don't know that you can assume that. it may be that he's going to talk to them about a short-term agreement that i think they announced an hour or so ago that they would like to do in terms of short-term extension. you know, i can't tell you what they're going to meet on. >> so you don't think it's necessarily arm twisting? >> no, i don't think so. i don't think so. >> let me ask you, you mentioned the short term. do you know, sir, when we say short term, i

mr. coburn, for mr. mccain, proposes an amendment numbered 553. mr. coburn: i ask unanimous consent that the amendment be considered as read. i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: first, without objection. and the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: mr. johnson: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from south dakota is recognized. mr. johnson: i ask consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. johnson: i ask unanimous consent that the pending amendment be set aside and i call up my amendment 556, which is at the desk. the presiding officer: without objection. the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from south dakota, mr. johnson, for himself and mr. kirk, proposes an amendment numbered 556. on page 114, between lines 18 and 19 -- mr. johnson: i ask unanimous consent that the amendment be considered as read. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. johnson: i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to a period of morning business with senators permitted to

mr. coburn: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. coburn: this is a commonsense amendment that will secure disability payments for veterans and make sure we are not paying for disabilities for those that are not truly service connected, that are not based on science or causation. i know it's a tough vote but in the environment that we face today, we ought to be using science to positively connect causality with any disability that we grant. and with that, i retain the balance of my time. mrs. murray: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: madam president, just to my colleagues know, there's a reason that we have made this type of compensation like agent orange priewmentive. it's because our -- presumptive. it's because our military did a miserable job of trablging these and no veteran will be able to go to a map and tell you where they were exposed. no veteran is going to be able to tell you how much poison they inhaled. so we have to look at the facts with reason and compassion. and in this

mr. coburn: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. coburn: thank you. and i wanted to spend some time talking about what is coming before us saturday morning. as a member of the gang of six, i'm wanting us to solve our problem. but the best way to solve that problem would be the bill that's going to be voted on on saturday morning. and why is that? you know, we're borrowing $4 billion a day. and i've got enough gray hair to know that regardless of all the good intentions and regardless of all the statements of the members on the floor that we'll never live within our means in washington until we are forced to live within our means. and just because a constitutional amendment would take probably four years to pa pass, given what the american people think about it, isn't a reason not to go on and do it regardless of what we do about our short-term problem coming up august 2. so the very fact that people would say, we're not gonna pass the cut, cap and balance because it won't happen in a period of time is exactly the same approach that got us $14.3 trilli