Tom Coburn as Chicken Little

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist


Senator Tom Coburn was out this past weekend telling news sources (if you count Fox as a news source) that the federal government must cut spending significantly and soon if the country is to avoid an economic catastrophe and "apocalyptic pain."  While the Oklahoma Oracle didn't get specific (yet), one can safely predict that what he is talking about are any social programs that have not already been gutted on the altar of national defense and corporate greed.

The sky is falling!  The sky is falling!

Coburn, who currently resides in subsidized housing at Doug Coe's Christian fundamentalist cult house on C Street in Washington, makes nary a mention of the real economic problem - the national deficit - which is a result of spending along with a shortage of income.  Coburn, in fact was adamant that the tax breaks for the wealthiest two percent of Americans not be repealed - a sweetheart deal for the rich that robbed the American treasury of a trillion dollars over the next ten years.  He is also a war hawk, supporting the outrageously expensive and futile Bush Oil and Glory Wars in the Middle East.  When Old Tom talks about balancing the budget, he is not looking to harm Halliburton or Exxon.  His sights are set on government "giveaways" like school lunches, help for the unemployed, and social security.

Tom, if you really want to keep the sky from falling, take some responsibility and use your position of power to formulate some changes that make sense:  vote to stop the ridiculous and never-ending wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, push for comprehensive audits of Halliburton, Xe (Blackwater), and all of the other war profiteers, tax the rich (The top individual income tax rates when Eisenhower was President were north of 90% - and the economy was booming!), push for comprehensive health care for all, and establish serious regulation of the banking system.

That is if you really want to fix things.  But if your aim is to stall and dodge while protecting your rich buddies and blaming everything in sight on our President of less than two years, then by all means keep flapping your gums on Fox.  Their lemmings undoubtedly appreciate your righteous wrath toward any government spending to help people in need, even if doing so does have a direct and positive impact on the economy.

But as for the rest of us, Tom, we have met the apocalyptic pain - and he is you!