“My mission is to frame this health care debate in terms of the fiscal ruin of this country,” said the 61-year-old Mr. Coburn, who recently railed on the Senate floor that the federal debt was “waterboarding” his five grandchildren. “I have instructed my staff to clear my schedule for every minute that bill is on the floor.”

via A Senate Naysayer, Spoiling for Health Care Fight – NYTimes.com.

I find him a hyper-conservative and also a hypocrite. Where was he with his Dr. No antics over the past eight years of the Bush administration? If Bush were to get his way on privatizing Social Security would Mr. Coburn have stepped in and assumed the role of Dr. No to stop the increased deficit in the budget as a result?

He just can’t avoid attempting to throw a monkey wrench into the works. He wants to take away the right for postal workers to collectively bargain. Looks like some people need to organize a protest on C-Street.

I urge you to oppose the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Funding Reform Act of 2009 (S. 1507). An amendment to the bill, offered by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) and adopted by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, would require arbitrators to take the financial health of the Postal Service into account when ruling on postal workers’ contracts. Under current law, arbitrators must consider the “comparability” of postal wages to employees in the private sector who perform similar work.

The provision renders the bill unacceptable to postal workers, because it interferes with our collective bargaining process. Arbitrators routinely consider the Postal Service’s financial status as part of the context in which negotiations are conducted. However, attaching this specific requirement to the law leaves workers at a severe disadvantage, and makes the bargaining process subject to manipulation.

S. 1507 was intended to provide short-term financial relief to the cash-strapped Postal Service.

We seriously need serious credit card reform and here is Coburn trying to latch on to a bill to pass something totally unrelated.

"It’s just wacky," said Jon Houston, an aide speaking on behalf of Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., the bill’s chief House sponsor who has been pushing for a crack down on credit card practices for two years.

Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., saw an opportunity to grab on to a comparatively fast-moving target, since lawmakers are under the gun to finalize a credit card bill in the next 11 days. Keeping pressure on Congress, President Obama held a town hall in New Mexico on Thursday inviting consumers who had written or called the White House about their credit card companies.

Just plain silly.