"Most of them are egomaniacs," says Tom Coburn of his congressional colleagues. "There are not many normal people up here."
Coburn was elected to represent Oklahoma’s 2nd District in 1994 and quickly became a player in the annual budget process, working with other conservative members to limit spending. A medical doctor who has maintained his family care and obstetrics practice while in office, he has also made AIDS a top priority, authoring a bill that would require newborns to be tested for HIV if their mothers hadn’t been tested for the virus.
Mindful of his declaration that normalcy is in short supply in Washington, it’s worth pointing out that Coburn is convinced that there’s a national epidemic of venereal disease (gonorrhea comes up quickly and easily even in casual conversation with the congressman). He gives his congressional colleagues and their staff an annual presentation on the subject, providing C-SPAN with some of its racier moments. That’s no small accomplishment during the Clinton years.
Coburn doesn’t think he’ll miss Congress and Washington and has no plans for future political office. Instead, he’ll return to his medical practice.
Reason: What prompted you to run for Congress?
Tom Coburn: I was nauseated at what I saw going on. I thought people other than politicians ought to get involved. And I believe in term limits. They set you free from both party and procedural guidelines to do what you think is right.
Reason: Is your voluntary leaving a loss or a gain?
Coburn: It’s a gain. Hopefully, more people will see the wisdom of a short period of service up here. Why would you want to come up here to stay? Ask yourself that question. What is it that addicts someone to Washington? Most people who want to do that have a deep-seated insecurity or they wouldn’t be up here in the first place.
Reason: Have your priorities changed since you first showed up in D.C.?
Coburn: No. They include a marked decrease in the intrusion in our lives by the federal government at all levels. A restoration of liberty and freedom. I am 52 years old and I can tell you that you have less freedom compared to what I had. You can measure it and define it. There are not more than 160 people in the House who believe in limited government. They may say they believe in it, and that is the difference between a career politician and a term-limited one. The former will say whatever they need to get re-elected, but what you have to do is measure their votes. They’ll vote exactly the other way.
Reason: You’ve been outspoken about trying to get Congress to stick to the 1997 spending caps.
Coburn: We are so far above the budget caps set in 1997. The agreement we have made with the president on controlling spending and decreasing the size of government was a sham. He knew it and our leaders knew it. And they perpetrated a fraud on the American people.
We are just like second-century Rome and Greece. We are declining as a nation because our leadership and our government now use farce to state their cases, and there are too few people who are willing to stand up and challenge that, including the media. Consequently, the very tenets of our liberty are going to be taken away.
Reason: What are some of the perks of power?
Coburn: It’s about being called "Congressman." C.S. Lewis had this concept called the "inner circle." Man is constantly trying to get into the inner circle and the reason you want to be on the inner circle is because there is notoriety in it, but also because you can elevate yourself above those that are outside the circle. This is the reason this is such a great job: There are only 435 in this inner circle, out of 270 million people. It is the ultimate inner circle. And then if you are a committee chairman, you are in the next inner circle. And then if you are in leadership, you are in the next inner circle. And then if you are in the conference committee in leadership, you are in the next inner circle. It is elitism, elitism, elitism–chasing something to elevate yourself.
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