oklahoma senator tom coburn was the lone vote who blocked the senate from taking up the benefits extensionefore the easter recess. coburn claims he doesn't oppose extending the benefits. he just doesn't want it to end to the deficit. yeah right. the bottom line is, a lot of americans are struggling to find a job in this economy, and coburn just cut off their lifeline to make a political point. let many bring in john nickels, washington correspondent for "the nation." good to have you with us tonight. this is, if i may, a real cruel thing to do. when you think about the billions of dollars that we ship overseas on missions that we don't even know if they're being effective when it comes to our security, we don't even bat an eye at it, to do this to folks who want to get back into the economy, it's as mean as it gets. how do the democrats handle this? >> well, i think the democrats have to be very aggressive with this. remember, we talk about tom coburn as one guy. the fact of the matter is that he operates within the context of the republican party in the senate, and he is the second republ

here's tom coburn who i respect tremendously for what he's done. here's senator tom coburn of oklahoma talking with a woman at a taown hall meeting in oklahom city on march 21st, not too long ago. let's listen to this departure. here it is. let's listen. >> if they can put us in prison, take away our prison, take away our liberty, are they not trampling on our fifth amendment rights by putting it under the irs? because the irs thinks you're guilty until proven innocent. >> i want everybody else to get to answer a question -- ask a question. so let me -- the intention is not to put anyone in jail. that puts for good tv news on fox. that isn't the intention. there is the intention to use the internal revenue service to hold you accountable and you have to prove that you have bought health insurance. i want to tell you, i do a lot of reading every day, and i'm disturbed that we get things like what this lady said and others have said on other issues that are so disconnected to what i know to be the facts and that comes from somebody that has an agenda

here's audio from a town meeting conducted by tom coburn.'ll here this conservative senator defending nancy pelosi. and also doing a little nudge at fox news. let's watch. well that was a fresh bit of air. i'm sure he'll get some cat calls for his chiflry, but he'll feel better about what he said about the speaker than those who said about the cat calls being who they are. >>> last night, jon stewart did his job while delivering a late hit on a certain former u.s. president. >> is a rare politician willing to accept responsibility for fraud. >> this fraud has been done by the foreigners. >> what the -- you're blaming us for conspireing to get you, hamid karzai, re-elected as president? i believe the term you were looking for was thank you. hamid, say it ain't so. >> well, it seems that president karzai is backtracking on his words. what he told hillary clinton by phone was he didn't mean it like that. >> you know, i don't think there's any woman in the world who has had more late night, baby, you know i didn't mean it like that, phone calls,

next on this show, senator tom coburn of oklahoma's strange new observations about me out of the blues. is here -- ellen page. hi, ellen! hi, ellen! hi, ellen! hi, ellen! we're going on a field trip to china! wow. [ chuckles ] when i was a kid, we -- we would just go to the -- the farm. [ cow moos ] [ laughter ] no, seriously, where are you guys going? ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! [ female announcer ] the new classroom. see it. live it. share it. on the human network. cisco. let me show you. there's a new 24-hour heartburn formula that's different. it's called zegerid otc. only zegerid otc has both prescription strength-medicine and a special ingredient to allow its powerful medicine to be quickly absorbed. zegerid otc controls and suppresses acid all day and all night. there's a brilliant new idea in heartburn relief. new zegerid otc. discover the difference. >>> one spot light-seeking senator squeezes the unemployed. a spotlight seeking democrat switches to the republicans because of the whole naked lady nightclub th

." >>> up next, what caused republican senator tom coburn to do the unthinkable?s one of the most conservative guys in the senate. he's out there key fending nancy pelosi. very chivalrous. very classy. also took a nice little shot at fox news in the doing. interesting to watch this. you never know what to expect in politics. coming in the "sideshow." if you have heartburn more than one day a week, try prilosec otc. it shuts down many acid-producing stomach pumps for twenty-four hours of heartburn protection with just one pill a day. for frequent heartburn, try prilosec otc. ♪ [ male announcer ] every business day, bank of america lends nearly $3 billion dollars to individuals, institutions, schools, organizations and businesses in every corner of the economy. america. ♪ growing stronger. every day. can sometimes get out of hand in a hurry. [ screaming ] hey. pbht! [ luke ] unless, of course, you've got at&t, the nation's fastest 3g network, which means you can surf the web and download videos in a snap. there you go, dad. hey. ♪ thanks. ha, this is good. [ male an

does that tell us possibly democrats have the votes even if tom coburn objects? guest: the only have votes for cloture and the one-month and extension. both scott brown and susan collins who voted to end debate yesterday, both said we are only supporting the cloture vote. we are not necessarily supporting the constant one- month extension here. the democrats don't have the votes in the long run to keep extending this temporarily. the way the democrats have gotten around the pay goals is to labeled as emergency spending and keep doing it one month or another with extension. host: what about how democrats and republicans are framing the issue for the midterm election? guest: the democrats have an easy way to bring it. they will say republicans are letting 200,000 people who are long-term unemployed have their benefits yang out from under them because republicans can filibuster this. that is the democrat line. that is an easy line. republicans are saying, look, we are not completely wanting to yank the social safety net out from under people. we just believe it shou

senator tom coburn saying pelosi is a niece lady. >> i'm 180 degrees in opposition of the speaker. she's a nice lady. come on now. she's a nice person. just because someone disagrees with you doesn't mean they're not a good person. and i want to tell you i've been in the senate for five years and i've taken a lot of that, because i've been on the small side both in the republican party and the democrat party. just because i don't agree with them doesn't mean i'm bad. don't catch yourself being biased by fox news that somebody is no good. the people in washington are good. they just don't know what they don't know. >> senator coburn is up for re-election. >>> tiger woods makes his return to masters golf. today has been about the buzz about his return to advertising that uses the voice of the golfer's late father, earl woods. >> tiger, i am more prone to be inquisitive to promote discussion. i want to find out what your thinking was. i want to find out what your feelings are. and did you learn anything? >> now, ad experts have called the spot everything from powerful to creepy. woods

senator tom coburn.the same time the white house is scaling back expectations for the job market. the chief economic advisor warns it will be a long time before the economy completely recovers. gerri willis and major garrett. a jobless recovery, is it fair to say that or is it too early. >> even conservatives say it's too early to talk about jobless recovery but there are problems with the quantity. we had private sector job growth in march of -- march of 2010 but at christina romer said on "meet the press" yesterday, we don't see the gross domestic product driving huge gains in jobs. here's how she put it. >> most of the forecasts are we'll grow 3% real gdp in 2010. that's not enough to get a lot of job growth. we'll get positive growth, enough to bring the rate down a little bit. but you need faster than that to really make a dent. >> and as we saw last month, though there were private sector jobs created, unemployment remained the same because people said there was a chance to get a job and reentered

republicans led by senator tom coburn wanted to use stimulus money to pay for the program.set aside to create jobs. the senate will take up the issue when members return to work next week. and those are your headlines. >> well, this morning, as you know, it is a very important day. the first family is set to host thousands of kids on the white house south lawn for the annual extra egg roll. you must have seen this many times. >> been there many times. >> kelly wright joins us here. kelly, you do not -- you are too old to take part but you are old enough to observe. what is -- i'm just saying. you cannot roll anything at the white house. >> i'm never too old to be a child. >> i'll hit him for you, kelly. >> good morning to you. and i guess happy easter to you, brian. gretchen and steve, since you are children like me, you would love to be here because we're anticipating 30,000 children to descend upon the south lawn from the states. i got the easter bunny over my shoulder right here. all from the states and d.c. the theme is get ready, get set and go and it's because michell

i also want to commend ranking member tom coburn for his dedication to the effort as a partner in this effort. chairman levin and the subcommittee staff deserve credit and our deep appreciation for the work that they have put into this series of hearings on wall street and the financial crisis. since november 2008, subcommittee investigators have gathered millions -- millions -- of pages of documents, conducted over a hundred interviews and depositions, and consulted with dozens of experts. it is truly a mammoth undertaking, and the fruits of their labor were evident in last week's two hearings on washington mutual bank. i look forward to the subcommittee's remaining two hearings on this subject, including this friday's hearings on the role of credit ratings agencies. i commend this to all my colleagues. the levin hearings deserve comparison to the legendary but core investigations of the 1930's which were held by the senate committee on banking and currency to investigate the causes of the wall street crash of 1929. the name referred to the fourth and final chief counsel for the inves

true that was until i was reading "the washington post" last week and the question was asked, is tom coburnoo nice? [laughter] no, that is not tom's problem. he is of fran but that is not close to his biggest problem. but tom had been attacked for daring to say nancy pelosi is a nice person. [laughter] i want to commend -- because i say that. people think that i do not like you, nancy. i'd have no idea where they get that idea from. nancy is a wonderful person. she is a great mother, a great white -- i was about to say, a great grandmother. you are a wonderful grandmother, not a great grandmother. you're not there yet. you're not, are you? ok. everyone knows that she is a special person. we worked on several issues here, and even though ideologically we could not be further apart on a lot of issues, when i was standing in the back of the house of representatives, see nancy pelosi sworn in january 2007, i think with your husband and other members of the family back there, i sat there thinking what a wonderful moment. i am going to tell my daughter about this. and again, nancy, politics aside

senator bunning is not only blocking extension, he and tom coburn are blaming democrats, because democrats refused their demand to use stimulus money to pay for it. let's turn now to msnbc political analyst jonathan alter. also, of course, national affairs columnist for "ne "newsweek." >> hi, keith. >> this premise that was in the new yorker piece, that justice stevens' departure means more than just the loss of one vote. explain that. >> first of all, justice stevens is the great intellect on the court in our generation. he makes scalia look like a pygmy, intellectually, despite all the fireworks scalia gives off. he was an appointee of republican gerald ford. he's always been a moderate who has tried to interpret the law, which is his job, in an intellectually honest way. and you do get the sense that this idea of trying to sort of build majorities across ideological lines on the court is becoming a thing of the past. there are some very talented justices still on the court, but they don't have stevens' ability to work with people -- i don't want to say both sides of the aisle, because t

just so we're all crystal clear on this, here is what he said to oklahoma republican senator tom coburnou don't know anybody on fox news because there hasn't been anyone that said people go to jail if they don't buy mandatory insurance. it doesn't happen here and we researched to find out if anybody on fox news had ever said you're going to jail if you don't buy health insurance. nobody's ever said it. >> uh, the key word is research, isn't it? media matter called o'reilly's bluff with stinging video evidence showing that he was flat-out dead wrong. now, he tried to pin the blame on coburn on wednesday. >> senator from oklahoma, people missed it last night, you know,

it's an all or nearly nothing program that government waste watchdog, senator tom coburn could only beasel on it so you can get more money. it is exacerbated because of the economic downturn. >> weaseling because at tiny airports, airport managers do just about anything they can to hit the jackpot of 10,000 passengers and get the government's money. that includes free flights. >> it was just a little. >> ad in the newspaper, free flights. they were trying to meet their quota and they were like 300 passengers short of it. >> so a free flight coming up? >> yeah. it was awesome. >> reporter: last december, susan pearson saw an ad in the local paper for a free sightseeing flight. >> this was quite a thrill. >> reporter: local news was there too, catching her, her grandson, donovan, and hundreds of others flying a chartered 757 above bridgeport and clarksburg. >> reporter: where did the flight go? >> everywhere. >> actually, nowhere. up and down. susan and her grandson became part of the airport's 10,000 passenger a year count. dozens of airports have been chasing that number as well. in ne

does that tell us possibly democrats have the votes even if tom coburn objects? guest: the only have votes for cloture and the one-month and extension. both scott brown and susan collins who voted to end debate yesterday, both said we are only supporting the cloture vote. we are not necessarily supporting the constant one- month extension here. the democrats don't have the votes in the long run to keep extending this temporarily. the way the democrats have gotten around the pay goals is to labeled as emergency spending and keep doing it one month or another with extension. host: what about how democrats and republicans are framing the issue for the midterm election? guest: the democrats have an easy way to bring it. they will say republicans are letting 200,000 people who are long-term unemployed have their benefits yang out from under them because republicans can filibuster this. that is the democrat line. that is an easy line. republicans are saying, look, we are not completely wanting to yank the social safety net out from under people. we just believe it shou

this time, it is oklahoma's tom coburn with the same question. cnn's christine romans live in new york today. christine, help us with this. how many people and how much money are we talking about here? >> he with are talking about a couple hundred thousand people last week who rolled off the unemployment benefits and overall for the month of april, if the senate doesn't do something. you have a million people whose unemployment benefits will expire. what it really underscores is there are so many people who are long-term unemployed in this country. there are almost 6 million people who have been getting extension after extension of unemployment benefits. now, what the republicans are concerned about, this was emergency spending for the stimulus in the very beginning. now, we have a chronic long-term unemployment issue. they are saying, all right, let's address it. find a way to pay for it. find a budget offset as they say in washington. the democrats are saying, no, we need to do this quickly and get moving. some democrats want to go ahead and ha

it's an all-or-nearly nothing program that government waste watchdog senator tom coburn said only could be devised in one place. >> congress did it. we created the incentive to kind of weasel on it so you can get more money. and it's exacerbated now because of the economic downturn. >> reporter: weaseling because at tiny airports across the country like north central west virginia, airport managers do just about anything they can to hit the jackpot of 10,000 passengers and get the government's money. and that includes free flights. >> it was just a little -- >> reporter: ad that said -- >> in the newspaper that said free flights. they were trying to meet their quota and they were, like, 300 passengers short of the -- of the -- >> reporter: so literally a free flight, coming out of a free flight? >> yeah. it was awesome. >> reporter: last december, susan pierson saw an ad in the local paper for a free sightseeing flight. >> this was quite -- quite a thrill. >> reporter: local news was there, too. catching her, her grandson, donovan, and hundreds of others flying a chartered 757 above bri

oklahoma senator tom coburn has been blocking the bill because not all the extensions are funded.senators will vote at 5:30 eastern on moving the bill forward. and tonight, on the communicators, reaction to the appeals court decision on fcc rules regarding net neutrality. the court said the federal agency does not have authority to regulate how internet service providers handle traffic over their networks. "the communicators" tonight 8:00 eastern on c-span2. >> my philosophy ask best when i think the answer might give me a little help deciding the case. >> a look at the "national press club" here where dennis quaid will be speaking in a half hour on medical mistakes. mr. quaid was also our guest this morning on "washington journal.". a look at that discussion now while we wait for our live coverage of his speh at the press club. >> host: until 10:00 eastern this morning we're joined by actor, patient safety advocate, dennis quaid and dr. charles denham, chairman of the texas medical institute of technology here to talk about medical errors and patient safety. dennis quaid, probabl

yesterday that he might be able to put together a deal with mitch mcconnell the minority leader and the tom coburnlibuster guy on this by this afternoon. we might hear about a longer term deal. what they would do is a full year extension of all these programs. and that way they wouldn't have to deal with it every month. the thing is -- i mean, coburn and other republicans are not going to relent on this unless they have some sort of pay-for that's congressional lingo tore spending reduction or revenue increase or something to offset this so the $9.2 billion cost, for example, does not contribute to the deficit. >> host: well, but do democrats have the votes now that we see that four republicans yesterday voted to end this debate and go forward with at least a short term extension of unemployment benefits. so does that -- does that tell us that possibly democrats have the votes even if coburn objects? >> guest: well, they only have the votes for the cloture vote and for the one-month extension. both scott brown and susan collins who voted to end debate yesterday both said we're supporting the clotu

the senate didn't because there was one republican senator, tom coburn, we have to find a way to pay it. the cost of the extension is some $9 billion. so where is that money going to come from? the whole issue is this is originally the extensions were emergency spending under the stimulus. how long are we going to keep going on with emergency extensions and emergency extensions. and some republicans really want to find a way to pay for this. >> you have a romans numeral for us dealing with this issue. >> the issue two different things, all of these people out of work and all of these people making money 13,944. this is a number to show you how well the stock market has done. record number of people getting unextended employment benefit. the stock market has gone up and up and we're talking about people desperate to survive in unemployment benefits. stocks are expected to open higher today. shows you two speeds in the company, talking about on the one level people trying to get unemployment benefits. on the other level, somebody out there it making money. >> i saw something over the w

this 40 minute portion starts with oklahoma senator tom coburn >> thank you for your testimony. as i sit here and listen to both the opening statement of the chairman and to your statements i come to the conclusion that investors would have been better off had there been no ots because the investors couldn't get behind the scenes to see what was misled by the ots because they faced the regulators were not finding any problems when in fact the record shows there were tons of problems. there was no action taken on it. so i guess my question was ots behavior we see in the record and as outlined by the chairman worse than not having or not doing anything. we get people continually investing in this business on the basis as a matter of fact they raised additional $7 billion before the collapse on the basis that ots said everything was fine when in fact ots knew everything was not fine and wasn't getting it changed. would you agree with that statement or not? >> yes, sir. i pulled back a point in my statement and said basically signing a satisfactory rating when conditions aren't is c

senate is working on a bill to extend long-term term insurance benefits and tom coburn leading a g.o.p. call for pai as you go rules for makeup for the measures cost. democrats say it is emergency spending because of the high unemployment rate. the senate is just underway and you can follow live coverage on c-span 2. tim geithner has a speech today before the society of newspaper editors convention and we will have that live for you at 12:45 eastern and the u.s. house coming back from spring recess will work on suspension bills that gets underway at 2:00 eastern. economist magazine held a con freps on the future of innovation recently. scholars discussed how they think innovation can preserve resources and if the climate is favorable for new ideas. it is from the university of california in berkeley and runs about an hour. steve has mentioned that we might be automobile optimistic, i have to make a confession, and that is in berkeley, i am hallucinating right now. as some of us might know, i'm not ha hawaii luce nateing for psychotropic reasons, it is because of jet lag. i am about to

oklahoma republican tom coburn has offered amendments to pay for the pill through tax changes. the house meanwhile works on sting the national estuary. live senate coverage here on c-span two. gracious and loving god, the one we live and move and have our being, we call upon you this day seeking your blessing in this united states senate. we call upon you for wisdom and courage, knowing without you we can do nothing. but also knowing within you we can do all things. we remember every good and perfect gift comes from you, the father of lights, and we creek your presence and blessing in all we do this day. we remember the words of scripture which rim us saying, blessed is the nation whose god is lord. we thank you for the sacred gift and trust given to us in the senate, looking to you in all things, through christ, in whose name we pray. amen. the presiding officer: please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice

guest: the unemployment rate in particular, the battle with tom coburn announcing he wanted the billbe paid for and that he wanted other spending cuts to pay for the billions of dollars in this bill. some of the republicans thought that they were arguing with democratic counterparts and the house was not sure that they were on board did, so congress left without extending the benefits. they ran out and congress is going to see if they have the votes to except it as is without a paid for bill. host: how quickly will the senate start talking about justice stevens? guest: you will see a debate on that early on, particularly when the folks on committee lay out how quickly they want to see the president move on announcing someone else and how long they want the committee to take in debating it. there are a lot of different steps to it, the question of potential that would be filled out by the nominee is and how much time there would be for hearings and how much time republicans would go over responses for floor debates. one of the standard things in the supreme court is you look at how lo

this is an emergency and we don't have to pay for it, we're not hurting us, you're not hurting tom coburn you're hurting the generations that follow us. it would be different if we had an efficient, effective, well-run federal government that was within the bounds of what the constitution said we were supposed to be doing. but we're not anywhere close to that. and there is so much fraud, so much waste, so many well-connected goodies going to the well-endowed and well healed in this country because they've -- well-heeled in this country because they've got a connection politically, and we need to clean it out. everything ought to be competitively bid. there's no reason for it not to be competitively bid. and to pass up that $65 billion a year because we don't do it? you know, there's another thing we do. we spend $8 billion a year maintaining properties that the federal government doesn't want. think about that. and for three years i've tried to get through a real property reform and can't get it through. and we either need to tear these structures down so we have to quit spending money on