You are here: Fairness.com > Resources > Sen. Tom A. Coburn M.D.

Sen. Tom A. Coburn M.D.


Self Description

March 2008: "Tom A. Coburn, M.D. was elected to the U.S. Senate on November 2, 2004. Dr. Coburn and his wife, Carolyn, a former Miss Oklahoma, were married in 1968 and have three children and four grandchildren. They are members of Muskogee's New Community Church.

Dr. Coburn's priorities in the Senate include reducing wasteful spending, balancing the budget, improving health care access and affordability, protecting the sanctity of all human life - including the unborn - and representing traditional, Oklahoma values. As a citizen legislator, Dr. Coburn has pledged to serve no more than two terms in the Senate and to continue to care for patients. He is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the Indian Affairs Committee and the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

Prior to his election to the Senate, Dr. Coburn represented Oklahoma's Second Congressional District in the House of Representatives from 1995 through 2001. He was first elected in 1994, then re-elected in 1996 and 1998, becoming the first Republican to hold the seat for consecutive terms. Dr. Coburn retired from Congress in 2001, fulfilling his pledge to serve no more than three terms in the House.

During his tenure in the House, Dr. Coburn wrote and passed far-reaching legislation. These include laws to expand seniors' health care options, to protect access to home health care in rural areas and to allow Americans to access cheaper medications from Canada and other nations. Dr. Coburn also wrote a law intended to prevent baby AIDS. The Wall Street Journal said about the law, "In 10 long years of AIDS politics and funding, this is actually the first legislation to pass in this country that will rescue babies." He also wrote a law to renew and reform federal AIDS care programs. In 2002, President George Bush chose Dr. Coburn to serve as co-chair of the President's Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA).

During his three terms in the House, Dr. Coburn also played an influential role in reforming welfare and other federal entitlement programs. He led efforts to balance the budget, offering countless amendments to trim the bloated federal budget.

In 1970, Dr. Coburn graduated with an accounting degree from Oklahoma State University. One of the Top Ten seniors in the School of Business, Dr. Coburn served as president of the College of Business Student Council.

From 1970 to 1978, Dr. Coburn served as manufacturing manager at the Ophthalmic Division of Coburn Optical Industries in Colonial Heights, Virginia. Under his leadership, the Virginia division of Coburn Optical grew from 13 employees to more than 350 and captured 35 percent of the U.S. market.

After the family business was sold, Dr. Coburn changed the course of his life by returning to school to become a physician. Again he emerged as a leader, becoming president of his class at the University of Oklahoma Medical School where he graduated in 1983. He then did his internship in general surgery at St. Anthony's Hospital in Oklahoma City and family practice residency at the University of Arkansas, Fort Smith.

Dr. Coburn returned to Muskogee where he specializes in family medicine, obstetrics and the treatment of allergies. Dr. Coburn has personally delivered more than 4,000 babies.

Dr. Coburn also is a two-time cancer survivor."

http://coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=AboutSenatorCoburn.Biography

Third-Party Descriptions

September 2011: "When the House [patent reform] bill was returned to the Senate, Senator Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican, tried to amend the bill to go back to the Senate financing version, but the amendment was killed Thursday."

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/09/business/senate-approves-overhaul-of-patent-system.html

July 2008: "State and federal investigators said Tuesday that they spent the past two days gathering evidence in the last documented mass lynching in the United States....A U.S. senator agreed to unlock a bill that would create a "cold case unit" at the U.S. Justice Department. The legislation is sponsored by Democratic U.S. Rep. John Lewis of Georgia and passed 422-2 in the House. But Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma, used an obscure Senate rule to freeze the bill, just as he routinely does on efforts that require government spending."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/07/01/lynching.investigation/index.html

June 2008: '“If the members of the Senate really believe that specialty hospitals are harmful, then there should not be earmarks protecting the specialty hospitals in home states of certain members of the Appropriations Committee,” said Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma.'

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/08/washington/08hospital.html

April 2008: 'One of Senator Coburn’s main concerns was that the bill might subject employers to civil rights lawsuits stemming from disputes over medical coverage. And employers that also finance their own health insurance, he said, might be sued twice. “We would have created a trial lawyers’ bonanza,” he said.'

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/business/23gene.html

October 2007: Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, called the new W.H.O. policy [on malaria netting--Ed.] “a great move,” adding, “We knew social marketing doesn’t work.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/09/health/09nets.html

October 2007: The lawmaker who put the hold on the bill, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), contends that the bill would create 'a pathway by which individuals can lose their Second Amendment rights but no pathway through which they can gain them back if they're stable.'

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/02/AR2007100202171.html

September 2007: “We don’t need any more cultural centers,” Mr. Coburn said. “We’re fighting a war; why should we be spending any more on a cultural center?”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/12/washington/12earmarks.html

January 2006: 'I don't believe lobbying reform's the problem; I believe Congress is,' committee dissident Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) lectured his colleagues. 'We ought to be real frank with the American people. We're going to do a lot of window dressing, but in the long run we're not going to change anything till we change the motivation that the next election is more important than anything else.'

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/25/AR2006012502232.html

October 2005: "During Roberts's confirmation, the administration and its allies tiptoed around the question of the nominee's religious beliefs. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) told reporters that when he asked how faith influences his work, Roberts 'said, 'I'm very uncomfortable talking about that.'"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/12/AR2005101201381.html

October 2005: Officials said the fine would preclude any amnesty for illegal immigrants, an anathema to conservative groups and politicians. 'To the people of Oklahoma, amnesty is a horrible word,' Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/18/AR2005101801613.html

November 2004: '...Tom Coburn, the newly elected Republican senator from Oklahoma, lately famous for discovering "rampant" lesbianism in that state's schools. As a congressman in 1997, Mr. Coburn attacked NBC for encouraging "irresponsible sexual behavior" and taking "network TV to an all-time low with full frontal nudity, violence and profanity being shown in our homes." The broadcast that prompted his outrage on behalf of "parents and decent-minded individuals everywhere" was the network's prime-time showing of Steven Spielberg's "Schindler's List."'

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/14/arts/14rich.html

Relationships

RoleNameTypeLast Updated
Student/Trainee (past or present) Oklahoma State University - Stillwater Organization Mar 22, 2008
Member of (past or present) Republican Party (U.S.) / Republican National Committee Organization Mar 22, 2008
Member of (past or present) US House of Representatives Organization Mar 22, 2008
Member of (past or present) US Senate Organization Mar 22, 2008
Friend (past or present) Colleague/Co-worker of (past or present) Senator John Ensign DVM Person Apr 22, 2010

Articles and Resources

26 Articles and Resources. Go to:  [Next 6]

Date Fairness.com Resource Read it at:
Sep 08, 2011 Fighting Backlog in Patents, Senate Approves Overhaul

QUOTE: The Senate approved a sweeping reform of the nation’s patent laws on Thursday, sending to President Obama a bill that changes the system for determining priority for inventions at the patent office and provides more financing for an agency beset by application backlogs and outdated computer systems. After rejecting proposed amendments to a bill approved by the House last June, the Senate voted 89 to 9 to pass the bill, completing an effort of at least six years to overhaul the patent office’s operations and the procedures by which patents can be challenged.

 New York Times
Mar 03, 2011 Pressure Limits Efforts to Police Drilling for Gas

QUOTE: Natural gas drilling companies have major exemptions from parts of at least 7 of the 15 sweeping federal environmental laws that regulate most other heavy industries and were written to protect air and drinking water from radioactive and hazardous chemicals. Coal mine operators that want to inject toxic wastewater into the ground must get permission from the federal authorities. But when natural gas companies want to inject chemical-laced water and sand into the ground during hydrofracking, they do not have to follow the same rules.

 New York Times
Oct 01, 2009 Senator’s Aid After Affair Raises Flags Over Ethics

QUOTE: Several experts say those activities [of Senator John Ensign] may have violated an ethics law that bars senior aides from lobbying the Senate for a year after leaving their posts.

 New York Times
Aug 17, 2009 One Person’s Boondoggle, Another’s Necessity

QUOTE: Those [certain] proposals for spending federal stimulus money were all criticized... But they have something else in common, too. They are popular locally. And they underscore a truth that has been evident since the New Deal: sometimes the boondoggle is in the eye of the beholder

 New York Times
Jun 14, 2009 Some projects raise question: Where's the stimulus?

QUOTE: As President Obama moves to accelerate the flow of federal funds intended to rev up the economy and energy efficiency, public officials are voicing concerns about the merit of some plans.

 Los Angeles Times
Jul 02, 2008 New evidence collected in 1946 lynching case

QUOTE: On July 25, 1946, two black sharecropper couples were shot hundreds of times and the unborn baby of one of the women cut out with a knife at the Moore's Ford Bridge. One of the men had been accused of stabbing a white man 11 days earlier and was bailed out of jail by a former Ku Klux Klan member and known bootlegger who drove him, his wife, her brother and his wife to the bridge. The FBI statement said investigators were following up on information recently received in the case, one of several the agency has revived in an effort to close decades-old cases from the civil rights era and before.

 CNN (Cable News Network)
Jun 07, 2008 Concerned About Costs, Congress Pushes Curbs on Doctor-Owned Hospitals

QUOTE: For years, Democrats have been trying to stop the proliferation of doctor-owned hospitals, in the belief that they drive up costs by encouraging doctors to order more procedures. Now Democrats in Congress are moving to impose new restrictions on these for-profit hospitals, but they have carved out exemptions for a few institutions represented by influential senators and well-connected lobbyists.

 New York Times
May 02, 2008 Congress Passes Bill to Bar Bias Based on Genes

QUOTE: On the House floor on Thursday, Democrats and Republicans alike cited anecdotes and polls illustrating that people feel they should not be penalized because they happened to be born at higher risk for a given disease.

 New York Times
Apr 23, 2008 Congress Near Deal on Genetic Test Bias Bill

QUOTE: Congress reached an agreement clearing the way for a bill to prohibit discrimination by employers and health insurers on the basis of genetic tests.

 New York Times
Apr 17, 2008 Senate seeks federal inquiry of altered earmark

QUOTE: The Senate voted Thursday to seek a federal investigation into a 2005 earmark on a highway funding bill that was altered after Congress approved the measure but before President Bush signed it...The $10 million earmark...was changed to put the money into building an interchange in Lee County, an apparent violation of congressional rules.

 CNN (Cable News Network)
Oct 09, 2007 Distribution of Nets Splits Malaria Fighters

QUOTE: Villages like Maendeleo are at the center of a debate that has split malaria fighters: how to distribute mosquito nets.

 New York Times
Oct 03, 2007 Oklahoma Senator Blocks Widely Accepted Gun Bill

QUOTE: The lawmaker who put the hold on the bill, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), contends that the bill would create "a pathway by which individuals can lose their Second Amendment rights but no pathway through which they can gain them back if they're stable."

 Washington Post
Sep 12, 2007 Earmark Gone, Indian Project Is One-Winged

QUOTE: In this remote town of 2,000, the people who have been planning the center for more than a decade say they feel unfairly tarnished by anti-earmark sentiment, prompted in part by the scandals surrounding the disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and former Representative Randy Cunningham of California and by proposed projects like the $200 million “bridge to nowhere” in Alaska.

 New York Times
Jul 09, 2007 A Battle Over Expansion of Children’s Insurance

QUOTE: Democrats have proposed a major expansion of the program, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, to cover more youngsters with a substantial increase in federal spending. [But] Administration officials...said it would speed the erosion of private insurance coverage.

 New York Times
Sep 14, 2006 Congress lifts blinds on its spending: After 2005's bribery and corruption scandals, Congress moves to list US federal expenditures on a searchable database.

QUOTE: It's the least controversial of all the reforms Congress has considered since last year's bribery and corruption scandals, and its passage will provide an effective new tool for anyone wanting to look over lawmakers' shoulders soon after they clear spending bills.

 Christian Science Monitor
Sep 07, 2006 Congress eyes 'pork-barrel' reforms: With the US public pressing for change, both Senate and House consider making earmarks and their sponsors far more visible

QUOTE: the reforms would mark a sea change in the way Congress does business, especially in the Senate, where project add-ons are seldom challenged before a vote - and where a senator's "secret hold" on a bill is enough to derail it quietly.

 Christian Science Monitor
Aug 22, 2006 Push grows to reform the way Congress spends: The House vows to tackle earmark reform as a backlash grows from activists and bloggers.

QUOTE: There's too much flak over lawmakers who are cashing in on earmarks - legally, as campaign contributions; illegally, as bribes. Even good projects look bad when they're muscled into spending bills late in the process, anonymously, and with no competition, debate, or chance to delete them.

 Christian Science Monitor
Jul 25, 2006 On Capitol Hill, the rolling pork barrel is picking up speed

QUOTE: earmarks are embroiled in controversy surrounding legislators' relationships with lobbyists...the expansion of the pork barrel is startling: Earmarks added to spending bills totaled $3.1 billion in 1991, compared with a record $29.3 billion in fiscal year 2006, according to Citizens Against Government Waste.

 Christian Science Monitor
Jul 20, 2006 Will Future Doctors Be Forced to Teach Abstinence?: he Bush administration has funded an evangelical anti-sex group to develop the sexual health curriculum for medical students.

QUOTE: the Medical Institute for Sexual Health (MISH) made headlines after the federal government announced that the group would receive a $200,000 grant to establish a sexual health curriculum for medical students. Sexual health experts affiliated with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were taken aback... Despite what its legitimate-sounding name might suggest, MISH is really nothing more than a thinly veiled ideological interest group that manipulates science to advance its mission.
May 07, 2006 Contra-Contraception

QUOTE: It may be news to many people that contraception as a matter of right and public health is no longer a given, but politicians and those in the public health profession know it well.

 New York Times

26 Articles and Resources. Go to:  [Next 6]