Former Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn discussed economic policy and the coming financial crisis with host Stephen K. Bannon on Breitbart News Daily Thursday morning. Coburn believes we have not passed the tipping point to disaster just yet, but warns that “a hard time is coming.”
Bannon noted that Coburn was one of the great fiscal hawks during his time in Congress, and asked if America – and, indeed, the entire world – has “passed the point of no return” toward the calamity Coburn warned about.
“I don’t think so,” Coburn replied. “I actually think you could change it… but you have to have a leader that’s going to be honest with the American people. The fact is, we can’t keep doing what we’re doing. We can’t keep printing money.”
He said the necessary course corrections would require “significant pain on everybody,” which will require “great leadership to sell to the American people”… but if those corrections are not made, the pain is coming anyway, and it will be much worse.
“Somebody like myself shouldn’t be getting Social Security,” Coburn offered as an example. “But we have a system that pays someone who makes $100,000 a year still their Social Security. Well, there ought to be an earnings ratio on that. There’s not a problem we can’t solve if we have honest leadership. Our problem is that haven’t had intellectually honest leadership.”
He said one of the reasons America’s economy isn’t growing fast enough to handle its fiscal burdens is “the oppressive nature of the federal government and its rules and regulations,” which have “eliminated the incentives” for entrepreneurial risk-taking, and made it “too expensive to be in business.”
Coburn warned the government was growing increasingly less responsive to the people, thanks to impenetrable bureaucracy and the Supreme Court becoming a “super-legislature.”
“I don’t think we’re past the tipping point, but I think we’re very, very close. When 52 percent of the people in this country get a check from the federal government, we’re close,” he said.
“A hard time is coming, and we’re not going to be able to prevent it,” Coburn predicted, while maintaining that smart and honest leadership could produce a strong economy – plus honest, accountable, responsible government – that would help America weather those times.
“We don’t have any honesty coming out of Washington,” he said of the current situation. “We have very few honest numbers, or policies, or philosophies coming out of Washington that are straightforward, and you can actually know: ‘Here’s what they said, and here’s what they mean.’”
Coburn recommended visits to websites he is currently involved with, Convention of States and Restore Accountability, to learn more about his analysis of American government, and his recommendations for building a more honest, responsible, and limited government.
You can listen to the entire interview with Tom Coburn below:
Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot Channel 125 weekdays from 6:00AM to 9:00AM EST.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.