In the first installment of his 'Hot Mic' column, Morning Joe producer Ben Mayer writes about Sen. Tom Coburn's appearance on the show this morning.
By Ben Mayer
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., was defiant Thursday over the Morning Joe panel’s discussion of the Tea Party movement.
Coburn has endorsed Texas U.S. Senate candidate Ted Cruz who, with heavy Tea Party backing, easily won his Republican primary Wednesday over establishment candidate Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst.
“He actually gets it,” Coburn said of Cruz. “I was really amused with you all’s conversation. I don’t think you get it. The Tea Party is every person in America who really is fed up with Washington and recognizes the way we got there is abandoning the core principles of our country.”
Moments earlier, amid discussion of the Tea Party’s image, New York Times columnist Gail Collins argued, “There’s a good reason people don’t relate to the Tea Party. It’s not because its name is ‘The Tea Party.’” It’s because it really wants to undo all the entitlements people really like. It wants to drastically reduce the size of the government. It wants to get rid of veterans’ benefits. It wants to get rid of education aid, all the stuff people actually like.”
Coburn returned to Collins' comments during his interview, “I don’t know one Tea Party leader anywhere that wants to eliminate veterans’ benefits. I’m appalled. That’s not a plank anywhere.”
But in 2011, Tea Party favorite Michele Bachmann proposed $4.5 billion in cuts to veterans’ services, drawing the ire of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and other groups. Army Times reported:
Proposed by Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., the freeze in veterans health care funding — along with a cut in disability compensation for veterans also receiving Social Security disability benefits — are part of a $400 billion package of spending cuts that the Tea Party leader says could be enacted to avoid increasing the $14.3 trillion cap on government borrowing.
Bachmann eventually took the cuts off the table, saying in a statement:
"One point on my discussion list was a $4.5 billion proposal that would affect payments made to our veterans. That discussion point has received a lot of attention and I have decided to remove it from consideration. The problem of government spending must be solved, but not on the backs of our nation’s war heroes. I have always been a proud supporter of the United States military and I continue to stand with our veterans. In the months ahead I look forward to working with our Veterans Service Organizations to ensure that we fulfill our commitments to those who sacrificed so much in their brave service for our country.”
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Yeah, I think Coburn probably knows about Bachman's crazed statements & positions over the last few years as the Tea Party Caucus leader - but she's had so many, even Coburn probably finds it hard to keep up! When he says he's appalled at the suggestion that Veteran benefits would be cut by Tea Party planks, he said, "... there's just so much confusion about what the Tea Party means...".
That is the real problem with this radical, repressive and reactionary "movement" - nobody takes responsibility for the wacked-out comments that even the Caucus Leader makes, much less a US Senator!
A perfect example with Coburn this AM was his reference to Congressional responsibility. And in response to Jonathan Capeheart's question about a Coburn assertion about the Tea Party's being "fed up with Washington and the abandonment of the Constitution..." Coburn, rather confused by the question said "...go back & read Article 1, section 8 - it gives the Enumerated Powers". He said that the Courts have not been holding Congress accountable to not staying in Section 8... but he said, "Americans get it..."
No they don't, and Coburn doesn't get it either, The Enumerated Powers section of Article 1 enumerates or lists those powers that Congress has, like taxes and the Post office and Immigration laws. The Tea party and Coburn like to think that they have the ears of the long dead Founders and who might now interpret the "Necessary and Proper" clause to fit their own ends - like cutting Veteran benefits, Medicare, and Social Security - you know, as Coburn says, "the things that are tearing this country down"!
Thanks for bringing up this segment Ben, It was a good show especially with Gail Collins. I just wish you as a producer could have slipped Jonathan a copy of your pocket Constitution!
I wouldn't use the word 'defiant' to describe the Senator , that word suggests a bit of anger .To me he very firmly cleaned all your clocks .
Hopefully a lesson learned .
He was "FIRM" enough to appear defiant.
But his Tea Party reference to being "appalled" forgot about Bachman(who is truy appaling) and he was flat out wrong about Article 1, section 8.
Congress has the responsibility to do EVERYTHING necesary under the enumeration of powers to pass bills and create law... they don't pass bills that ARE necessary because of blocks by these Tea baggers who want Congress to pass NOTHING!
They are stuck in some fantasy of the 18th century... STUCK!
The panel should have a copy and should have called him on it... they were way to polite to a megalomaniac like Coburn or any Tea Party fanatic for that matter...
Why is it that Bachman, Palin, Ryan, and the rest of that band of misfits get to lie and say whatever they want, but when a democrat says something strong and to the point, which if not true could be easily refuted by just showing the electorate the returns for the last 12 years, then hypocrites like this Joe Schmuck get on their pompous high horse and start their infantile dribble -- " (sniffle) eeehhh, he's not playing fair ... I'm going to tell your mommy ... when I was in congress, we did all this better ... my red truck is better than your red truck ..." -- I so wish that Faux Propaganda machine would offer this AH arrogant pompous donkey rear Joe a gig that would get him off our TV screens on MSNBC. It would allow many of us to watch the show with the morning breakfast, w/o feeling like puking. As it is, I take about 3 minutes of the AH and then switch to the local news channel. Joe ruins morning cable news TV all by himself. Only Faux propaganda can be worse ...