Sen. Coburn: Successfully Fighting the Pork-a-Palooza

U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma continues to do heroic work opposing wasteful spending and we need to let his office know how much we appreciate his efforts.

Though part of the GOP minority of 41 -- actually smaller because several GOP senators are really big spending liberals -- Coburn has actually made a dent in the Economic Recovery Act of 2009. The name is too long so let's call it what it really is: The Pork-a-Palooza!

The Senate voted late Tuesday to strike $246 million that had been earmarked to "rescue" Hollywood from these depressed economic conditions. This was a Coburn amendment, and it passed 52 to 45. The money would have come in the form of tax breaks to major Hollywood studios. (By the way, aren't these the same people who are always lecturing the rest of us on our patriotic duty to pay higher taxes?)

Coburn made an impassioned speech on the floor of the Senate in which he declared, among other things:

“When the American people learn what this bill contains they will reject it. This bill is about spending money we don’t have on things we don’t need. We got into this mess by spending and investing money that didn’t exist. We won’t get out of this mess by doing more of the same. Yet, that is precisely what we are doing.”

“Instead of delivering change, this bill celebrates the politics of the past. The bill represents both the mindless partisanship of recent decades, and the failed interventionist policies of the 1930’s. The Senate can, and must, do much better. As currently written, this bill represents the worst act of generational theft in our nation’s history.”

There's more in the Wall Street Journal op-ed piece he's written.

According to Michelle Malkin, Coburn has offered several amendments designed to mitigate or eliminate the wasteful spending in the Pork-a-Palooza. But he is still working to get the entire thing tossed, which would be the best of all possible, albeit unlikely, outcomes.

One last thought: As awesome as Coburn has been on fighting the Pork-a-Palooza, do not forget two years from now that Second Dist. Congressman Dan Boren had no trouble at all voting for the House version of same. This so-called conservative Democrat is proving to be nothing more than another of Nancy Pelosi's lap dogs. We need to get beyond the Pavlovian response to campaign ads like "Sportsmen for Boren." So he likes the 2nd Amendment. Who shouldn't? But if he continues to vote for Pelosi's radical agenda for America, it isn't going to matter much a few years down the road.