Coburn encourages former colleagues to work harder cutting waste

WASHINGTON — Former Sen. Tom Coburn urged a Senate committee Wednesday to work harder to eliminate government waste, saying it would be a step toward restoring public trust.

“America doesn’t trust you anymore,” the Oklahoma Republican told the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs. “You’ve lost their confidence. And that’s not one party; that’s both.”

Part of the reason, he said, is because people believe Congress wastes “hundreds of billions of dollars.”

He said, “All this waste, all this fraud, all this duplication has a constituency” and lawmakers are afraid of offending voters or donors by cutting it.

‘Offend them all’

“I think you ought to offend them all,” he said.

Coburn, who left the Senate in early 2015, served on the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee for 10 years.

During that time, Coburn authored legislation requiring the Government Accountability Office — Congress’ auditing arm — to conduct an annual study of duplication and waste across the federal government.

The Muskogee physician was on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to talk about the sixth annual report, which was released last week. In it, the GAO said efforts stemming from Coburn’s legislation “have resulted in roughly $56 billion in financial benefits from fiscal years 2010 through 2015, with at least an additional $69 billion in estimated benefits projected to be accrued through 2025.”

Eugene L. Dodaro, U.S. comptroller general and the head of the GAO, testified with Coburn on Wednesday. He said most of the savings had come from actions taken by Congress — rather than the executive branch — to eliminate duplication identified in the reports.

Dodaro and Coburn said that there was still much work to be done, particularly with entitlements.

Fraud, waste invited?

Coburn said the structures of Medicare and Medicaid — government health care programs for the elderly and lowincome — invite fraud and waste because they depend on participants being honest. Now the government is spending even more money to detect fraud, he said, because it didn’t have built-in protections.

Dodaro said the GAO has recommended steps such as profiling providers to detect patterns that may be fraudulent.

Sen. James Lankford, R-Oklahoma City, won Coburn’s seat in the Senate and also took a spot on the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee. Lankford and Rep. Steve Russell, R-Choctaw, have continued Coburn’s tradition of compiling reports on waste.

The committee’s chairman, Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and its top Democrat, Thomas Carper, of Delaware, praised Lankford on Wednesday as a worthy successor to Coburn. “I agree,” Coburn said. Coburn is leading a state-by-state effort to call a constitutional convention to consider amendments on a balanced budget and term limits. He said he has been in 15 states this year. Oklahoma this week became the seventh state to approve a resolution calling for the convention. Thirty-four states would have to approve a convention.