U.S. Senator Tom Coburn (Rep, Okla) is one of the few voices in Congress who is trying to stem the huge rising tide of government spending.

Dr. Coburn is a former congressman who first represented the Second District.  He defeated an amiable, youthful and brilliant Democrat, Mike Synar, in the Republican sweep in 1994, then term limited himself to three terms and left congress in 2000.  Other Republicans who ran that year and made the same promise later reneged.

Dr. Coburn left public office later returning to run for the Senate where he easily won and now serves.  He is a medical doctor who has long had a practice in Muskogee.

These days many people wonder where their Republican party has gone primarily because of spending and the huge growth in the size of the government.

The party of fiscal responsibility? Republicans inherited a balanced budget from President Bill Clinton in 2000 and are now spending hundreds of billions a year more than the government takes in.  Not even the old ‘tax and spend’ liberal Democrats managed to run up deficits like this.

The party of smaller government?  The government has expanded exponentially in the past five years under a Republican Congress and Republican president.

Well.  Clearly Tom Coburn doesn’t like what he sees any better than we do.  He is our idea of what Republican means.

Dr. Coburn this spring has raised his voice over all of the government pork being thrown into the budget and has had some limited success in getting some of it thrown out.