Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – A senator who helped shape Republican economic policy is predicating “apocalyptic pain” unless the national debt is reduced, giving a glimpse of the political opposition President Obama faces next year.
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) said Sunday that unemployment could rise to 18 percent within three to four years. He also said the U.S. economy could contract by 9 percent.
“The problem that faces our country today, the last 30 years we have lived off the future, and the bill is coming due,” Coburn said on “Fox News Sunday.”
Coburn recently issued a report saying the U.S. government would have to enact severe austerity measures unless government waste is eliminated.
He was appointed by Obama earlier this year to a deficit reduction commission that sought to figure out ways to control government spending.
The commission deadlocked between Republicans and Democrats on most of its recommendations.
The White House released a plan for reducing $4 trillion in debt earlier this month. Coburn voted in favor of it.
Coburn was re-elected to a second term in November as Republicans won key victories that will give them a majority in the House and more seats in the Senate.
The incoming Republicans are pledging to halt the economic stimulus spending that Obama said was needed during the recession.
An Obama aide said this weekend the president plans to run for a second term. Political analysts say his economic stimulus program is expected to be a primary issue during the campaign.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said this fall that one of the most important things Republicans could achieve is to make Obama a one-term president.
The conservative Tea Party, which helped many Republicans win elections in November, has set a 45-point agenda that would overturn many of Obama’s accomplishments.
The agenda’s “pledges” claim to be able to save $100 billion in the first year.
Coburn said he has figured out at least $350 billion in wasted spending under the Obama administration that could be eliminated without hurting anyone.
The waste includes $50 billion in programs that are duplicated elsewhere.
One example he mentioned was 267 job training programs handled by 39 different agencies.
Another $100 billion is wasted from Medicare and Medicaid fraud, Coburn said.
The new health care law approved by Congress earlier this year does not eliminate the fraud, he said.
“If we didn’t take some pain now, we’re going to experience apocalyptic pain, and it’s going to be out of our control,” Coburn said. “The idea should be that we control it.”
Coburn’s comments appear to foreshadow sentiment in the 112th Congress, which convenes Jan. 5.
Republicans will hold their biggest majority in the House since the late 1940s.
They are interpreting the 63 seats they won as a mandate to cut spending and possibly overturn the Obama administration’s landmark 2010 health care law that extends benefits to more people.
“If we actually want to help our economy get back on track and begin creating jobs, we need to end the job-killing spending binge,” said Rep. John Boehner (R-OH), who will take over as Speaker of the House.
View full post on All Stories
Comments are closed.