Coburn: GOP Will ‘Fold like hotcakes’ Over Defunding Fallout

coburn6Burgess Everett
Politico

If the government shuts down on Oct. 1, the GOP will “fold like hotcakes” in  the fight to defund Obamacare, Sen. Tom Coburn said Friday afternoon before a  critical set of votes.

The Oklahoma Republican said that after seven or eight days of shutdown the  Republicans will begin to feel the heat from their constituents over lack of  services back home, like pay for members of the military. To that end, Coburn  explained that Republicans will not keep the government shuttered in order to  defund Obamacare.

“The only time you shut down the government is when you shut it  down and refuse to open it until you accomplish what you want. But we’ll fold  like hotcakes,” Coburn told reporters. “You do not take a hostage you are not  going to for sure shoot. And we will not for sure shoot this hostage.”

Coburn is among the loudest critics of a strategy to use the continuing  resolution as leverage to defund the healthcare law. Coburn knows a little  something about shutdowns: He was a freshman in the House when the government  last shut down in 1995 and 1996, which many believe left a blemish on the party  in subsequent elections.

“When the pressure comes, the conflict for a politician is you want to get  reelected,” Coburn said. “Shutting down the government doesn’t  work.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/tom-coburn-government-shutdown-97465.html#ixzz2gAUO1ykW


Print pagePDF pageEmail page
  1. Steve Dickson, 28 September, 2013

    From the last article about a “small number of people inside the Senate” (Cruz, Lee, Paul, and others who chose to fight INCLUDING INHOFE instead of roll over):

    “They’ve been misdirected in terms of what the real problems are,” Coburn said. “The real problem in our country right now is that we’re bankrupt.”

    From this article:

    “When the pressure comes, the conflict for a politician is you want to get reelected,” Coburn said. “Shutting down the government doesn’t work.”

    So is he saying in the first article those who choose to fight are ignoring the problem that we are bankrupt, and in this one that shutting down the bankrupt government in an effort to reign in spending doesn’t work.

    Looks to me like Senator Coburn “folded like hotcakes” without even fighting, so if the GOP did so after a few days of a shutdown that would be an improvement.

    Thank you Senator Inhofe for your continued leadership and demonstration of conservative values in this matter, and quite a few others.

  2. EdmondVoter, 28 September, 2013

    I simply don’t get Coburn…. he complains about the government being broke but voted for TARP and stimulus packages, and to raise the debt limit so we can borrow more money that we can’t pay back. He complains that we have waste, fraud, and abuse and then votes for funding ObamaCare and budgets that are filled with fraud, waste and abuse. He carps that Republicans are wasting their time trying to stop this train wreck of a disaster, and then he votes to continue fueling the train down the track toward destruction.

    Dr. Tom, you can’t have it both ways… get off the fence!!!! At this point no one on the right or the left respect a thing you have to say. Take a stand for something because right now you are falling for everything. VERY Disappointed!!!!

  3. Bill from Ada, 29 September, 2013

    Regardless of how you feel about the Affordable Care Act, or President Obama, holding the entire federal government hostage, as a political move is wrong.

  4. EdmondVoter, 30 September, 2013

    Bill from Ada…. it’s the POTUS that is holding the entire government hostage for his unworkable, disorganized, and expensive Obamacare. If he cared about the American people (including the workers), he would agree to the 1 year delay on Obamacare… so that he could sit down and talk with the House/Senate leadership to find a solution. It’s the POTUS who is to blame. He finds time to talk to the Iranians and play golf but he doesn’t have time to do anything for the good of this country.

*

Copyright © The McCarville Report