Sunday, April 17, 2011

National Attention On 'Gang of Six' Member Coburn

The Gang of Six

From www.thehill.com ~ A key Republican senator working to forge a bipartisan deficit-reduction compromise said President Obama is injuring that effort by making a partisan speech on the debt this week.

Rep. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), delivering the weekly Republican address, said Obama took America “three steps backwards” in dealing with the debt by making a speech filled with attacks on Republicans.

“Instead of describing the threat and bringing both sides together, the president attacked those who have a different vision of the government,” Coburn said.

Coburn has been working as part of the Gang of Six senators who are trying to put most of the president’s fiscal commission report into law. He is also considered very friendly in on a personal level with the president.

The fiscal commission plan attracted Coburn’s support because it lowered tax rates and reformed Social Security, items Obama did not support in his new debt plan unveiled Wednesday. Obama called for less deficit reduction, looser spending restraint and more tax increases than did the fiscal commission.

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