Tom Coburn, M.D., United States Senator from Oklahoma

“To know how to reach a destination, you must first know where you are. Without oversight -- effective, vigorous oversight -- you'll never solve anything. You cannot write a bill to fix an agency unless you have an understanding of the problem. And you can only know this by conducting oversight, asking the tough questions, holding the bureaucrats accountable, find out what works and what doesn't and know what has already been done. Effective oversight is an effective tool to expose government overreach and wasteful spending, but it also markedly exposes where we lose our liberty and our essential freedoms. True debates about national priorities would come about if we did effective oversight. It is the senate, once hailed as the world's greatest deliberative body, where these differences should be argued. Our differences should be resolved through civil discourse so they're not settled in the street. Just as the constitution provides for majority rule in our democracy while protecting the rights of the individual, the senate must return to the principles to gain the trust of the electorate. And it can.” – Dr. Coburn

Watch his full speech here.

Read the transcript here.

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