| Author | Message | ||
     Ft_bstrd |
The penultimate meeting of President Obama’s debt commission Wednesday was a data-heavy affair, with members and reporters poring over the 58-page final report brimming with facts and figures. Each member of the commission who attended the meeting — only Republican Rep. Dave Camp of Michigan and Democratic Sen. Max Baucus of Montana were absent, negotiating the Bush tax cuts — spoke for several minutes. Most speeches stayed policy-focused, with members saying what parts of the plan they liked and didn’t like. Then, after two hours of speeches, Sen. Tom Coburn took his turn. Coburn’s eight-minute speech made a few nods to data and policy, but was more of a plea for a wholesale change in American culture. “Nobody is looking at what the real problem is. And the real problem is us,” said the recently bearded Oklahoma Republican. “We have way too much government and not enough of the thing that made America great, which is independence, personal responsibility and self-reliance,” he said. “We have abandoned the principles which made America exceptional, which wasn’t the government. It was the people. It was us relying on ourselves, not saying I can take a pass and depend on the government.” He pointed to what he said are too many people who are receiving disability payments from the government as one example, and to the fact that two new categories of disabilities are in the process of being created right now. He added that the government should help “those who cannot fix their situation any other way.” The senator said that historically democratic republics only last about 200 years before they “rot from within” and then are conquered militarily. “And we’re rotting. We’re rotting as we sit here and speak today,” he said. But he said the committee could help set a different course to “cheat history.” “History says we’re not going to make it,” he said. “The way we cheat history is for all of us to give up something: everybody at this table give up something, and then say, ‘The way forward for America is for everyone to start sacrificing so we create a future that is honoring the tremendous sacrifices that came before us.’” Coburn’s ode to self-reliance drew a respectful silence from those in the Senate hearing room, Hart 216, the same used by the Senate Judiciary Committee for confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominees. After Coburn finished speaking, commission co-chair Erskine Bowles, a former White House chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, said of his speech: “I hope everybody sees that.” | ||
| Buellerandy |
And with that ideal atleast being mentioned, there is still hope. | ||
| Blake |
I gotta steal that. Great reporting FtB. (Message edited by Blake on December 02, 2010) | ||
| Court |
That's incredible . . . I not only wish more could hear it . . . I desperately wish, in this era of "what's in it for me?" . . that they could understand it. | ||
| Buellbozo |
I want to publicly state on this forum, that I, Mr. SuperDemoLib, fervently wish that I could be given the opportunity to vote for Senator Coburn for President. Of course, old habits die hard, and being a Dem, I'd like to vote several times for the man...  | ||
| Strokizator |
"Ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country." Hard to believe those words were spoken by a democrat 50 years ago. | ||
| Debueller |
Copied, pasted, and passed on. Thanks Fatty. | ||
| 1324 |
Nice find, care to post the original link so I can forward? Unfortunately, entitlement runs deep in our society. Convincing the masses of self-sacrifice is going to be challenging. | ||
| Sifo |
Here ya go... http://news.yahoo.com/s/dailycaller/20101201/pl_da ilycaller/coburnsaysamericaisrottingfromtoomuchdep endenceongovernment | ||
| 1324 |
Awesome, thanks for posting that. | ||
| Cityxslicker |
what an f'n concept. Thoreau said over 140 years ago We are a nation of low tit men,leading lives of quiet desperation content to suckle. If I knew for certain that a man from town was coming to me to give me assistance, I should run the other direction. on civil disobedience it is good that a sleeper shall at leisure get up from his shackles and remind the government and industry, that he is not so easily trodden. | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
I think what resonated most to both conservatives and liberals in Reagan's message was the idea of self reliance, that the greatest advocate of personal actualization was self. One ideal seeks to create a "shining city on a hill" and the other ideal seeks to throw rocks at that shining city in hopes of knocking off a piece for themselves. | ||
| Blake |
The commencement address I would give [if asked] | ||
| Aesquire |
Studies show that most people want more government. And that you can fool 78% of the people 85% of the time with made up statistics. | ||
| Gohot |
Something that I see in the SS Dissability concerning Truck drivers is that theres a bunch of guys/girls who are dissabled and not in a condition to become 'Well' any time soon, but must maintain their CDL liscense in case they should become well enough in the future. Cdl is tough to get in the first place, and letting it lapse, is twice as much of an empedament to returning to work as compared to other forms of re-entering the workforce..... Thats what I see as the reason that they are on SSDI and also have their CDL. Ofcourse this is only a small part of the bigger story. Do a search (Coburn and dissability) and read on through it, it's got some good content within. and illuminating | ||
| Court |
Blake: That is REALLY good. I had the pleasure of delivering the 2009 Commencement Address at Columbia University and talked about how folks' create their own opportunity and luck. It was resoundingly received. The only part that interested me was that many of the younger students viewed this as "old fashioned" thinking. Nothing, in these current times, could be further from the truth. | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
"The only difference between Old Fashioned Thinking & New Fangled ideas is time." | ||
| Cityxslicker |
You can never legislate responsibility, individualism, or honesty. Any politican that tells you that you can is so far out of touch with reality; and we were dumb enough to elect them Morally bankrupt, the financial mess is just the latest symptom. | ||
| Court |
>>>>"The only difference between Old Fashioned Thinking & New Fangled ideas is time." Kinda I'd certainly like to believe that but at times . . . it seems we've tricked some of our younger folks into believing that if they do some things by the book the rest will fall into their laps. I sometimes see what appears to be a mindset that, in the "age of change" that some have perhaps lost sight of those things that never change with time. We tend to get fooled into believing that with everything from hard drive capacity to data plans in a constant state of flux that EVERYTHING is changing. Values . . . those things like trust, loyalty, hard work, love, honesty and faith are timeless. The advantage goes to those who can recognize and appreciate that. I see students in my class who think that a "skill set" is being able to text fast and do 3 things during a lecture. It was interesting to watch the little experiment done at Harvard last year . . . the 20 something "multi taskers" were studied to see how well they really learned while eating, texting and IM'ing during class. The results were telling . . . the students who understood what "focus" was, who put their "text toys" away . . . . were head and shoulders above the rest. We're risking creating a less diverse societal structure that may end up looking like it was divided not based on talent or resume', but rather those who "get it" and those who don't. On the bright side . . . . in my sunset years, at 57, I love competing with bright Ivy League kids who think having internet access and Google can substitute for a library, hard work and research. They are creating the best opportunities I've ever dreamed of having . . . in fact, I'm off for another interview today. I confess, after all these years, it's flattering. The next couple years are going to be interesting. |
