Mitt Romney cast President Barack Obama as a man of grandiose promises he couldn’t keep in his nomination acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention Thursday.

Romney’s acceptance speech hit hard on the “disappointments of the past four years” without making it personal or uncivil, turning the tables and putting President Obama suddenly on the defensive. And after nearly an entire week of Republicans loudly proclaiming “We Built That!” at the GOP convention, Romney finally delivered and told millions of Americans how he plans to build a better future for the nation.

In the rousing finale to the GOP convention, which some analysts said would define his entire campaign, Romney explained that he understands why Obama’s promise of “hope and change” was enticing, but added “there’s something wrong with the kind of job he’s done as president when the best feeling you had, was the day you voted for him.”

The Republican presidential nominee then laid out an extremely ambition plan to bring 12 million jobs to the United States. Meanwhile, he said, the president’s plans will outsource jobs and eliminate American jobs.

“And unlike the president, I have a plan…It has 5 steps,” Romney quipped. You guessed it, another standing ovation. Here is that plan, according to Romney:

1. Make North America energy independent by 2020 by tapping America’s oil and coal, gas and nuclear and renewables.
2. Give American citizens the skills they need for the jobs of today and the careers of tomorrow by improving schools
3. Forge new trade agreements. And when nations cheat in trade, there will be unmistakable consequences.
4. Cut the deficit and put America on track to a balanced budget.
5. Reduce taxes on business, simplify regulations, repeal and replace Obamacare.

“President Obama has promised to slow the rise of the oceans and to heal the planet. My promise is to help you and your family,” Romney continued.

Click here for more from The Blaze.

U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK) released the following statement today regarding a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that found during 2010, 117,000 individuals received overlapping Social Security Disability Insurance (“SSDI”) and state Unemployment Insurance (“UI”) cash benefit payments totaling more than $856 million.  Of those individuals receiving benefits from both programs, GAO found 1,500 individuals received more than $40,000 from both programs in just one year. 

The report was done at the request of Senators Tom Coburn (R-OK), Ranking Member of the Senate Subcommittee on Permanent Investigations, Carl Levin (D-MI), Subcommittee Chairman, and Committee members Tom Carper (D-DE) and Scott Brown (R-MA).

“Double-dipping government assistance undermines programs for those who are truly in need while burdening future generations with unnecessary debt.  This report shows that Congress has failed to hold agencies accountable,” said Dr. Coburn.

While the GAO investigation found that many individuals were receiving both payments based on applicable laws, at least a few were improper payments to fraudsters.  For example, one individual qualified for disability benefits due to a back disorder, but at the same time worked construction jobs and collected UI payments in four different states over a four year period.  During that four year period, this individual received $107,000 in disability and unemployment payments, despite appearing neither disabled nor unemployed.

Job data shows disability rolls are growing faster than employment.  For instance, between April and June 2012, an estimated 246,000 individuals left the American work force and were added to Social Security’s disability insurance program.   In the same time frame, only 225,000 American jobs were created.

To read the full report, click here. For highlights of the report, click here. 

Fossil fuels might be finite, but, at this point in the development of the United States, they’re indispensable. Support for private research and development of alternative energy sources makes sense, then, but outright opposition to fossil fuels — especially now, when new methods of extraction and energy-efficient products promise to extend the life of limited resources — is implausible. Voluntarily limit production? Intentionally drive prices higher, unintentionally testing the limits of the American family household budget? Why?

As Sen. James Inhofe said in a recent interview with OCPA, "You can’t run this machine called America without fossil fuels." Maybe, Inhofe suggests, it’s time we stopped trying to do just that and took advantage of our incredible mineral assets instead.

"When you stop and think that here we have in America the largest recoverable reserves of any country in the world and yet we have a policy in Washington to be the only country in the world that doesn’t export its reserves, it’s unthinkable," Inhofe said. "We are creating a shortage that we don’t have to create."

Click here to read more from OCPA with video of the interview. 

U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-Okla.) released the following statement today after Mitt Romney named Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan as his vice presidential running mate.

“Governor Romney has made an outstanding selection.  He has sent a clear signal that he intends to win not just a political victory but a mandate to restore America.  The Romney-Ryan ‘comeback team’ understands our debt is the greatest threat to our national security and will act decisively to meet that generational challenge,” said Dr. Coburn.  

“I have had the privilege of working alongside Paul Ryan for many years.  He has exhibited the rarest and most essential quality of leadership in politics – moral courage.  When most elected officials have offered only rhetoric, Ryan has had the audacity to offer specifics and a plan that has transformed the landscape of American politics.  

“Those on the left who view this pick as an opportunity to demonize their opponents will, through their attacks, only energize Americans who are yearning for honesty and real answers.  The fact is Ryan has proposed innovative ways to salvage the noblest goals of his political opponents – a safety net that is both compassionate and sustainable.  I applaud Governor Romney and look forward to helping the Romney-Ryan ticket put America back on track.”

To
see an example of Ryan in action, click here for the YouTube video as
the Budget Committee Ranking Member walked through why the bill put
forward by Democrats fails the deficit test President Obama declared to a
Joint Session of Congress, September 9, 2009.

Paul Ryan:
Hiding Spending Doesn’t Reduce Spending

Text highlights of Ryan’s remarks follow:

The Majority Leader said the bill scores as reducing deficit by $131 billion over the next 10 years.

First a little bit about CBO: I work with them every single day; very good people; great professionals. They do their jobs well. But their job is to score what is placed in front of them. And what has been placed in front of them is a bill that is full of gimmicks and smoke and mirrors.

Now what do I mean when I say that?

First off, the bill has ten years of tax increases and ten years of Medicare cuts to pay for six years of spending. The true ten year cost when subsidies kick-in?      $2.3 trillion 

The bill is full of gimmicks that more than erase the false claim of deficit reduction:

– $52 billion of savings is claimed by counting increased Social Security payroll revenues. These dollars are already claimed for future Social Security beneficiaries, and claiming to offset the cost of this bill either means we are double-counting or we are not going to pay Social Security benefits.

– $72 billion in savings is claimed from the CLASS Act long-term care insurance. These so-called savings are not offsets, but rather premiums collected to pay for future benefits. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad has called these savings, A ponzi scheme that would make Bernie Madoff proud.

Additionally, the nearly half-trillion dollars in Medicare cuts cannot be counted twice.  Medicare is in dire need of reform in order to make certain that we can ensure health security for future seniors.

Using Medicare as a piggy bank, it raids a half trillion dollars from retirees health coverage to fund the creation of another open-ended health care entitlement.

The Presidents chief Medicare actuary says up to 20% of Medicare providers may go bankrupt or stop taking Medicare beneficiaries as a result. Millions of seniors who have chosen Medicare Advantage will lose the coverage they now enjoy.

Objections to the policy aside, you cannot use these savings twice to both extend the life of Medicare and to pay for other spending. The half-trillion dollars in Medicare cuts are either to extend the programs solvency or to reduce the cost of this deficit but not both as its authors claim.

When you strip away the double-counting of Medicare cuts, the so-called savings from Social Security payroll taxes and the CLASS Act, the deficit increases by $460 billion over first ten years and $1.4 trillion over second ten years.

Finally, one of the most expensive and most cynical of the gimmicks applies to Medicare physician payments, the so-called Doc Fix.

By your own estimate, the Doc Fix adds an additional $371 billion to the cost of health care reform. With the price tag beyond what most Americans could handle, the Majority decided to simply remove this costly provision and deal with it in a stand-alone bill.

Ignoring this additional cost does not remove it from the backs of taxpayers. Hiding spending doesn’t reduce spending.

U.S. Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) is not running for reelection.  If anything Coburn is looking forward to returning to his private life as a physician, business and family man.  Most important for you to know, he said in Tulsa, “There is not a problem in the country that we cannot solve.”

Coburn spoke in a series of Town Halls and, at the University of Tulsa’s Lorton Preforming Arts Center, Monday August 6 to a capacity crowd of 700 saying the greatest problem in the country is that we have “learned dependence rather than earned success.”

Coburn’s faith guides his service and if you love America you will be inspired by his message.

Three points Coburn says that Washington fails to understand are; 1.) Average Americans recognize that we as a people can do the hard things it takes to fix our nation, 2.) We must utilize our country’s own natural resources, and 3.) We must reform the tax code.

“We can get our mojo back; we just don’t have the leadership,” Coburn said.  “We don’t have a hundred people in Congress that have been successful as business people.”

Coburn skipped his usual preliminaries to immediately take questions from the audience.  Several were issue specific and those issues he knew were answered immediately and some he promised to research and later respond directly to the constituent.  On several topics Coburn provided background information not generally known.  Coburn said there were “many issues with specific government programs.”

Chuckles rippled through the crowd as Coburn explained his latest comments on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s leadership.  He said he used “Oklahoma Speak” which was not consistent with his faith (for the nonreligious, that means he said the truth, but brutally without grace).  The crowd appreciated the difference, but seemed more supportive of brutal truth.  

Coburn had said Reid was “incompetent and incapable” then later apologized to Reid which one audience member did not appreciate.  Coburn said Monday night, “What I should have said is that his leadership has been ineffective and bad for the country.”

Coburn said, he is able to be outspoken in Washington because Oklahomans understand and support if not help propel his positions on many issues.  He reads his email every day – about three hours per day.

Coburn said he was a big believer in a national sales tax and no income tax.  Coburn attributes the current economic disaster to taxes and regulations that, because of their uncertain impact on individual business, keeps more than $2 trillion on the sidelines of investment and employment generation.

The problem with the Federal Reserve Coburn said is the dual mandate (low inflation and low unemployment).  Coburn recommends the book "Currency Wars, The Making of the Next Global Crisis" by James Richards saying, “We are in one now.”

As a physician, Coburn has often pointed to problems in healthcare and said Monday night, “One in every three dollars spent on healthcare are wasted.” He said the basic problem is “We have not connected the patient to their own healthcare” and that “The latest [CBO] score is that Medicare is being reduced to fund state exchanges.”

“I’m the number one “gear clogger” in Washington,” Coburn said which caused laughter and scattered applause from throughout the room.

“I have never in my adult life seen a greater disrespect for the Rule of Law than in this administration,” Coburn said in a blistering analysis of Attorney General Eric Holder and President Obama.

“Respect for the law is what holds this country together.  This administration has set about to destroy that – that’s how anarchy starts,” Coburn said.  Specifically, Holder is an “inappropriate person” and would prove to be “one of the worst U.S. Attorney Generals in our nation’s history.”

“You cannot be young and have the experience you need to run this country,” Coburn said adding, “The president has not provided solutions.”

Throughout the town hall, Coburn spoke directly without notes, but with passion and conviction.  “We all know something is not right,” he said.  “I didn’t run to be a senator, I ran to fix stuff.”

For more of Senator Coburn in action, click on the links below:

August 2, Sen. Tom Coburn appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” and blasted the show’s panel for misrepresenting the principles of the Tea Party, saying they just don’t “get it.” He also gave the panel a solid history lesson on the Constitution after at least one panelist admitted he was unsure in which section the enumerated powers were located.  Click here for the video from The Blaze.

July 17, in an interview with Reason.TV Sen. Coburn said, "Both parties have equally participated in abandoning the limited role of the federal government." Click here to see the interview on Reason.TV.

Click here for Coburn’s new book, "The Debt Bomb: A Bold Plan to Stop Washington from Bankrupting Our Economy," which argues that Republicans and Democrats together have brought the U.S. to the brink of fiscal calamity.