mr. coburn: well, i thank the senator for his question. i think the people need to know what the g.a.o. actually does. the g.a.o. is is nonpartisan. they are not democrats or republicans. they are accountants and they are investigators, and they are the most valuable tool we have because we won't do the oversight of calling agencies up here. i think the numbers are, we're going to lose 400 investigators and auditors out of the g.a.o. one question to ask is why is it we're cutting g.a.o. more than we're cutting our own budget? i end up -- let me just make one additional point. things are not right in our country because things aren't right in the u.s. senate. when a 1,200-page bill that should have come out here appropriation bill by appropriation, 11 or 12 appropriation bills, and now we have a bill that's got over $3.5 billion worth of phonemarks in it -- we don't have earmarks anymore, they are phonemarks -- the corruption is still here. we're still pay to play game is going on in washington. now we just don't do it in the bill. we do it by telephone. and we threaten agencies that if

mr. coburn: i'm coming to the floor now because i won't have an opportunity to debate on the payroll tax cut because the vote's going to be at 2:30 and that time is taken. i think it's really important for the american public to look at what's happening in washington right now. there's not a disagreement in washington about whether or not we want people to continue to receive this tax cut. the disagreement is, should it come out of social -- should we continue to undermine social security or should we do it a different way? that's number one. and, number two is if we're going to borrow $117 billion against our children knowing that we have significant waste, fraud, abuse and duplication in the federal government in excess of $350 billion a year, should we not eliminate some of that to pay for this rather than borrow the money? and so we -- we have the posturing between the two parties based on the election that's coming to create a predicate that some people only care for the rich and some people only care for those that are less fortunate, which is all smoke and mirrors. there's unanimi

mr. coburn, who is the chairman of the courts, commercial and administrative law subcommittee of the judiciary committee. the chair: the gentleman from north carolina is recognized. kobe kobe mr. chairman, i thank the gentleman from texas, mr. smith, for having yielded to me. mr. chairman, those who oppose -- mr. coble: mr. speaker, those who oppose h.r. 527 insist that those of us who support it are well to -- willing to compromise health standards. such criticism is not justified. we simply are refining the process. excessive regulations and bad regulations serve no good purpose. my district is not unlike many others. we're still suffering from the recession and while we once claimed many manufacturing and producing distinctions, much of our manufacturing has either disappeared or gone to other places. bad regulations don't help matters, they create unnecessary costs, uncertainty for employers and do not improve public health or safety and they are particularly burdensome for small businesses. two critical laws that help ensure regulators will take into account the impact of proposed regulat

mr. speaker! >> reporter: there's one thing congress can still do. waste taxpayer money. senator tom coburn has just documented $6.5 billion in spending this year on what he says are frivolous or unnecessary projects. remember the bridge to nowhere? if you thought that alaska project was dead, you were wrong. we spent $15.3 million on it this year. this snazzy video, by the way, cost you almost $60,000. and there's more. $10 million spent on a remake of "sesame street" for pakistan. $100,000 to the international center for the history of electronic games in new york. $600,000 to study why chimpanzees throw their feces. and $150,000 for a magic museum in michigan. >> should we be doing these things? there is just absolutely no common sense up here, jonathan. none. >> reporter: come on, this is peanuts. >> the way you get a billion dollars at a time is $500,000 at a time. so, you know, these are just a few. i only listed 100. i could give you 1,000. >> reporter: and get this. the u.s. government spent $17.8 million this year on aid to china, including cash for economic development and social

mr. speaker -- >> reporter: -- there's one thing congress can still do. waste taxpayer money. senator tom coburnin spending this year on what he says are frivolous or unnecessary projects. remember the bridge to nowhere? if you thought that alaska project was dead, you were wrong. we spent $15.3 million on it this year. this snazzy video, by the way, cost you almost $60,000. and there's more. $10 million spent on a remake of "sesame street" for pakistan. $100,000 to the international center for the history of electronic games in new york. $600,000 to study why chimpanzees throw their feces. and $150,000 for a magic museum in michigan. >> should we be doing these things? there's absolutely no common sense up here, jonathan. none. >> come on. this is peanuts. >> the way you get a billion dollars at a time is $500,000 at a time. so -- you know -- these are just a few. i only listed 100. i could give you 1,000. >> reporter: and get this. the u.s. government spent $17.8 million this year on aid to china, including cash for economic development and social services. and where did we get the money we ga

mr. coburn: i have a question for my colleague. are we proud of this process? have we fulfilled the responsibility to the citizens of this country with this process? nobody can answer with yes to that. yet nothing seems to change. you know, $3.5 billion worth of funding earmarks totally puts an earmark ban on its head. the idea that parochialism trumps our nation's vital interest puts our responsibility and our oath on its head. i know the hearts of everybody here. they're great. the intentions are great. with this bill, we have failed america. we've failed america in the process, we've failed america in our oath, and at a time this next year is going to be much more difficult than anybody can anticipate, at a time when we're facing our national survival, business as usual occurs. that's a reflection of lousy leadership by all of us, including me. it means i didn't make my case big enough about what the priorities should be in our country. it's a great time for reflection. we're going to go home, we're going to pass this bill, far less than what the country nee