Coburn: Bend Over Bipartisanship

While there was never significant hope that the gang of six would reach any meaningful budget compromise, Tom “Oath of Hypocrisy” Coburn (R-OK), infamous for activism in C Street, a pseudo-church that covers up Republican adultery and promotes foreign legislation to kill gay people, sabotaged whatever hope there was.  He consumed months of time and group effort pretending to negotiate, when he was stalling, just like Chuck “Snake in the” Grassley (R-IA) did over to stall health care reform.

A bipartisan group of senators known as the Gang of Six has been trying for months to strike a deal on deficit spending and the debt.

Now, that sextet may be over. On Tuesday night, Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn called it quits. Still unclear, though, is whether his departure proves fatal to a grand debt-reduction bargain between Republicans and Democrats.

An Impasse

It was already clear things had hit a rough patch in the Gang of Six even before Coburn made it official that he was leaving the group. Hours earlier, another member of the group, Georgia Republican Saxby Chambliss, was asked why this group had failed to agree on a debt reduction proposal.

"When you get down to the few issues that are really the game changers, that’s when it gets tough," he said. "And that’s kind of where we are."

Obviously, without Sen. Coburn in our group, I think it’s fair to say that we’re slowed down significantly. And I would hope we can convince Tom to come back in the fold.

– Sen. Saxby Chambliss, a member of the Gang of Six

On Wednesday, Chambliss acknowledged that losing one of the three Republicans in the Gang of Six makes everything much harder.

"Obviously, without Sen. Coburn in our group, I think it’s fair to say that we’re slowed down significantly," Chambliss said. "And I would hope we can convince Tom to come back in the fold."

On Wednesday, Coburn said he was on "sabbatical" from the group because they had "reached an impasse."

Asked if there are irreconcilable differences, he said: "I don’t know. But I’m not going to keep banging my head for right now. I got other things I wanna do."…

Inserted from <NPR>

Coburn refused to compromise on hi demand to gut Medicare.

…The episode also is a reminder of how much Republicans will insist on in Dem concessions as conditions for any deal.

According to the aide familiar with the talks, the senators got into a heated argument on Monday night, after Coburn demanded an additional $130 billion in Medicare cuts on top of the $400 billion in Medicare cuts recommended by President Obama’s fiscal commission, for a total of $530 billion in cuts for current recipients.

The Huffington Post reported yesterday that the additional amount sought by Coburn was $130 billion, and that the number represented a new demand. TPM’s Brian Beutler put the figure at $150 billion.

“Coburn came in on Monday and said, `I want $130 billion,’” the aide says. “The conservation was heated. There was yelling. Durbin said, `I am not doing this. That destroys Medicare. That goes even further than Paul Ryan. We’re not doing it.’”

The conversation went on for three hours or so, the aide says, but the senators could not break the impasse. “Because Coburn couldn’t get his way, he walked,” the aide says. Coburn called Durbin on Tuesday to tell him he was pulling out… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Washington Post>

Rachel Maddow provides more detail.

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Negotiating with Republicans is a fool’s errand.  They insist on bend over bipartisanship.