i would walk on calls for tom coburn. i just agree to respect for him and very transparent. but you know, he had a really good relationship with president obama. it was people who didn't understand it, but i thought that was a perfect picture of much of what your book talks about when it comes to relationships. >> they were at opposite ends of most of the philosophical spectrum. but they have that communication. that we have been talking about and that communication would relationship that ultimately led to some trust and they still disagree but they did it in a civil way. >> as you all know, i learned this from her backing and the politics in his youth ministry and having made calls that the burden of leadership sometimes is heavy as you all know and it does take courage so kind of give a little more thought if you go on talking about in the book you touch up a bit on the conversation. give me a little more thought on your thought process was put in the book on the courage of leadership when you've got the craziness that

tom coburn said this. he said we basically have a government we can't afford. right or wrong, it is vastly bigger than it was ever intended. that sucks resources out of the economy. basically, it has caused a lot of the fiscal and economic issues we have. host: mark in roseburg, oregon. says she ister, she not an angry voter. emotions cloud your judgment, must stay the course. david is a democrat intel said. -- in tulsa. caller: i am not an angry voter. if you look around the country, look around the world, what a privilege it is to have the right to vote. the threat oft violence in the polling place. we live in a republic where we do have the right to vote. sayhe angry voters i would run. run to change the system. there have been people such as that in our pastor for example, former senator tom coburn from oklahoma did just that. he was frustrated with the system and he ran. in the united states. i love the fact that we have the opportunity to vote. i don't always like all the candidates that are the alternatives, but i'm certainly not an angry voter. host: wh

when tom coburn and i led the homeland security gochtal affairs committee -- governmental affairs committee that was kind of our shopping list. we used to offer changes, changes in spending, changes in revenues, especially revenue collection that would actually further reduce the deficit. we've taken action on a bunch of ideas from g.a.o., and we need to find additional steps to take. they provide part of the blueprint. every major agency has inspector generals and a lot of give recommendations on how to save money. those reports should not go on a shelf but should be an action plan for us. health care cost as a percentage of g.d.p., in my time as governor, actually after i stepped down as governor in 2001, revenue -- health care costs as a percentage of g.d.p. was pretty flat during the mid, late 1990's, started to rise again and continued to rise until about, i want to say right around 2011, 2010-2011. health care costs as a percentage of g.d.p. in this country had risen to 18%. 18%. i have a friend of mine who says, when you ask him howe he's doing -- how he's doing, he says compared to

we have tom coburn joining us now. very big on watching out for government waste, and we still see it, and you know, no matter whether you are in washington or gone from washington it shows no abandon, senator, does it? it just keeps going. >> shows what you the problem is that once have you power centralized in a central government, it abuses its power and whether you apply common sense or not, they're not going to listen to, it they continue to do the things that are not wise. it's different to have stupid things done when running a surplus, when you are borrowing against the future productivity and success of your kids, it doesn't make sense, it's about an uncontrolled federal government, not about the money they spend. neil: all right, well, you probably heard from a lot of the candidates last night, and they talk a good game, senator, about trying to rein in spending, we have to do a lot more than rein it in, you have to do it coupled with growth. tripping over themselves with tax cuts, is that alone going to do i