How confident is Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) that President Barack Obama would sign Cut, Cap and Balance legislation if it makes its way to his desk? So confident that he would wager a Porterhouse steak. He issued the high stakes wager in a press conference today, making the point that America has a major spending problem, the President needs to sign a bill that solves it, and the Cut, Cap and Balance bill which passed the House on Tuesday is the only viable option on the table. In other words, Obama … More

The recently rekindled Gang of Six presented its $3.7 trillion deficit-reduction plan to Senate colleagues yesterday. As the debt-limit deadline approaches, the six senators are hoping to gain support. “We told our colleagues this morning that we want to hear from them in the next 24 hours,” Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) said. “Are they with us or not?” After reading what Heritage’s David Addington had to say about the plan, hopefully the answer is “no.” (Pictured are Republican Sens. Mike Crapo, Tom Coburn and Saxby Chambliss.) At the White House, meanwhile, … More

Senators Tom Coburn (R–OK) and Joseph Lieberman (I–CT) unveiled a major Medicare proposal. Based on preliminary estimates provided by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the proposal would reduce total Medicare spending by more than $600 billion in the next 10 years and cut the program’s long-term (75-year) unfunded liability by approximately $10 trillion. This is a serious start. Without remedial action, Medicare faces a long-term unfunded liability of almost $37 trillion. The Medicare hospitalization trust fund is running a deficit of $34.1 billion this year alone. While the program has … More

Congressional Quarterly reported yesterday that Democrats, led by Representative Chris Van Hollen (D–MD), are pushing to use “tax overhaul” as a means to cut a deal to increase the debt ceiling by $2.4 trillion: Van Hollen also revealed that Democrats on the panel have “put a whole menu of options on the table” to eliminate…

President Obama has some explaining to do. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) yesterday revealed that 3,700 federal contractors — who were recipients of $24 billion dollars in stimulus funds — are tax evaders. In total, they owed the government at least $757 million dollars – probably more since the IRS databases don’t include those who…

Successful health care reform requires bold changes, not more of the status quo. Nowhere is this truer than in the case of Medicaid, the federal-state partnership to provide health care to the poor and disabled. Unfortunately for taxpayers and program beneficiaries, this was neglected by Obamacare. The new law leaves failing policies in place while…

By Matt HawesThe latest press release from Senator Rand Paul’s office highlights his continuing fight to hold the president accountable over Libya.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Sen. Rand Paul and five Senate colleagues issued a letter to President Bara…

If you knew a dangerous virus was about to hit America and that you could beg the government for a vaccine, you’d probably do it, wouldn’t you? That’s just what states and businesses alike are doing right now in preparation for Obamacare. But rather than seeking a vaccine, they’re asking for waivers from the law’s…

USA Today reported this week that billions in earmarks remain tucked into the funding measure that keeps the federal government running for the remainder of the fiscal year.  Congress is debating right now how much to cut from the measure, yet these secret earmarks are not being openly discussed by members of Congress. That’s unfortunate….

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) has a powerful ally in the fight to eliminate wasteful duplication in government programs: House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) announced the two lawmakers are teaming up for a bipartisan, House-Senate effort to eliminate overlapping and unaccountable government services that cost taxpayers more than $100 billion a year. A recent Government…