WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), made the following statement to honor veterans as the nation observes Veterans Day:

“Throughout the course of our nation’s history, our brave servicemen and women have selflessly dedicated their lives to preserve our freedom. Today, this statement holds true as thousands of men and women in uniform serve at home and in countries like Iraq and Afghanistan in order to defend the strongholds of our nation’s democracy. For this, we as a nation are forever humbled and grateful for their continued service to keep our nation and its citizens safe.”

“With its change in 1954 from Armstice Day, Veterans Day has become a symbolic date for the country to remember those of our Armed Forces who have defended our great country. Veterans Day is emblematic of our Nation’s commitment to those who have served and I strongly believe that we owe these individuals a debt of gratitude well beyond a special day of remembrance.

"As the second ranking of the Senate Armed Services Committee and a long time champion for those in uniform, I will continue to push for the best equipment, training and benefits that these men and women justly deserve. As the new Congress forms in the coming months, be assured that the care of our nation’s Armed Forces and Veterans will remain at the top of my agenda.

"God Bless our Armed Forces and God Bless this great nation.”

Stephanie, Cindy, and Stacey Darr of Tulsa stood tall with their family Tuesday night at the watch party in downtown Little Rock, as their cousin, Republican Mark Darr, won the Arkansas Lt. Governor’s race.

It was one of many victories for the Arkansas Republican party, now with
15 State Senator and 44 State House seats, the most Republican
legislators Arkansas has ever had at one time. 
 
While several candidates conceded early in the evening, the Lt. Governor, Secretary of State, and Land Commissioner races were the most heated.  Vote tallies for those races were considered well into the early dawn. Final counts Wednesday revealed that republicans had won all three of those elections, too.
 
At the watch party for the newly elected Lt. Governor Darr, it was a “family” atmosphere.  That perhaps was part of the difference and charm of the Darr campaign.
 
“We are so proud of him,” Stephanie Darr, of Tulsa, said.  It was a genuine sentiment, heard time and again throughout the evening and as the Lt. Governor took to the podium to give updates.
 
Although ballot counts frequently sea-sawed, Stephanie, Cindy, Stacey, brother Phillip, wife Kim, and children Madison and Cooper, all stood strong.  Members of his church, friends from college, and campaign supporters were also vigilant and kind, offering a pat on the back or reminder of hope.
 
Regardless of how things evolved, race updates never brought tension.  Children quietly played and adults gathered until available information seemingly dissipated.  Skot Colvert, the campaign scheduler, among many others, worked tirelessly all evening, constantly verifying updates.
 
It was after 2a.m. Wednesday morning, according to Curtis Coleman, President of the Institute for Constitutional Policy and designated watch party speaker, when Darr told everyone, “It’s time to go home.”
 
“At that point, we had more than 21,000 votes in Benton County.  Although we didn’t know when they would be counted in the state totals, we knew that he was going to win,” Coleman said.
 
That set the final tone for this evening at the Courtyard that wrapped up a lot like a traditional Christmas Eve, with that same anticipation for what the morning would bring.
 
“Voters can trust that they will get what they voted into office when it comes to Mark,” Coleman said.  “He is just a regular guy from Rogers, Arkansas.  He did live in Little Rock for a while and owned a pizza business.  He is the real deal in every way–a genuine and sincere guy.”
 
He continued, “What he said to voters, he meant.  He is exactly who he claimed to be throughout the election.  I think he is going to be an extraordinary public servant.”
 
Lt. Governor Darr currently resides in Springdale, Arkansas.  A conservative Baptist, he was raised in Mansfield, where he graduated high school in 1991. 

Photo 1:  Curtis Coleman, Kim Darr, Mark Darr, and Phillip Darr at the Watch Party in downtown Little Rock hosted at the Courtyard by the Marriott election night.

Photo 2:  Arkansas Lt. Governor Darr and wife Kim.

Photo 3:  Stephanie
Darr, Cindy Darr Crowder, Carol Darr Buchanan, Karen Darr Morris, Stacey Darr

Photo 4: Stephanie, Cindy and Stacey Darr sit with other family members at the watch party in Little Rock.

Photos and story by Tracy Crain, special to Tulsa Today.  Crain is a print reporter and regular contributor to Tulsa Today.  Throughout her career, she has served as a features writer, a web producer and a creative copywriter.  An award winning journalist, her work has appeared in publications nationally, aired on television stations across the country, and is regularly featured on Sirius Satellite Radio.  She has a Master‘s Degree in Journalism.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK) today released an oversight report, “Federal Programs To Die For – American tax dollars sent six feet under” that exposes more than $1 billion that has been sent to the deceased in the past decade.  Washington paid for dead people’s prescriptions and wheelchairs, subsidized their farms, helped pay their rent, and even chipped in for their heating and air conditioning bills.

“Nothing represents the stupidity of wasteful Washington spending more than directing a billion taxpayer dollars to the deceased.  This practice is disgraceful and, in many cases, robs the living of promised benefits,” Dr. Coburn said.  “Congress itself created this mess by allowing poorly designed programs to continue unchecked.  As a result, $1 billion of taxpayer funds has gone to 250,000 deceased individuals since 2000.  If Congress is ready to get serious about spending restraint, ending subsidies for deceased people is a sensible place to start.”

The report shows that since 2000 the known cost of payments to more than 250,000 deceased individuals has topped $1 billion, according to a review of government audits and reports by the Government Accountability Office, inspectors general, and Congress itself.  This is likely only a small picture of a much larger problem. Among the agencies making payments to the deceased:

•    The Social Security Administration sent $18 million in stimulus funds to 71,688 dead people and $40.3 million in questionable benefit payments to 1,760 dead people.

•    The Department of Health and Human Services sent 11,000 dead people $3.9 million in assistance to pay heating and cooling costs.

•    The Department of Agriculture sent $1.1 billion in farming subsidies to deceased farmers.

•    The Department of Housing and Urban Development overseeing local agencies knowingly distributed $15.2 million in housing subsidies to 3,995 households with at least one deceased person.

•    Medicaid paid over $700,000 in claims for prescriptions for controlled substances written for over 1,800 deceased patients and prescriptions for controlled substances written by 1,200 deceased doctors.

•    Medicare paid as much as $92 million in claims for medical supplies prescribed by dead doctors and $8.2 million for medical supplies prescribed for dead patients.

•    Congress has established HIV/AIDS funding distribution based on historic numbers of deceased HIV/AIDS patients, while many individuals living with AIDS desperately wait for medical care.

Click here to read the full report.

U.S. Senators and doctors Tom Coburn (R-OK) and John Barrasso (R-WY) today released a new report, “Grim Diagnosis – A check-up on the federal health law.”  The report details how many of the consequences of the new law are worse than anticipated.  The Senate physicians’ report, issued roughly 200-days after the enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in March, comes after their previous oversight report, Bad Medicine, that marked the first 100-days of the law’s enactment.  As physician-legislators, Drs. Coburn and Barrasso will continue their responsibilities to monitor the law’s impact on all Americans.

“Unfortunately, the overhaul that passed Congress this spring did not represent the real health reform Americans want and need.  The new law focused on some of the symptoms in our health care system, but failed to address the underlying disease.  For a majority of Americans, the cost of health coverage is their primary concern.  For too many, cost is the access problem. Unfortunately, the new law increases costs to patients, consumers, and taxpayers, while exacerbating many existing problems in health care,” Coburn and Barrasso write in the report.  

“This report presents the American people with a second opinion on the economic and financial impacts of the new health care law. Americans have a right to know how their health care, jobs, and financial stability will be impacted by the new law.  The health overhaul threatens our nation’s economic recovery, increases costs, and reduces job growth.”

“As practicing physicians, we are committed to real health care reform. Costs are too high. Choices are too few. Health coverage remains out of reach for too many Americans. Interference from government bureaucrats and insurance companies is too constant and pervasive.  We believe real reform begins with replacing the new law with sensible provisions that will lower costs, increase patient control, reduce bureaucracy and government interference, and put affordable, high quality health coverage within the reach of every American.”

The report includes the following key findings:

•  Eight in ten small businesses could lose their current health plans according to regulations published by the Administration.
•  The law will kill 800,000 jobs, perhaps even many more.
•  States face huge mandates ranging in the hundreds of billions of dollars – costs much greater than the supposed deficit reduction.
•  Real income will be depressed for millions of Americans because of the law.
•  Uncompensated care costs from care in ER could become much worse.
•  Taxpayers could be faced to bailout a new program created in the health overhaul that even supporters call a "Ponzi scheme."
•  New penalties and costs discourage the hiring of young Americans who already face the worst job market in a generation.
•  The law could cause the deficit to balloon by more than half a trillion dollars over the coming decade.
•  Even with the new law, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that “rapidly rising health care costs will sharply increase federal spending for health care programs.”
•  The Medicare Trustees’ have said the nearly $530 billion in cuts to the Medicare program proposed by the new law “will not be viable.” In other words, the law’s supposed savings are based on phony accounting.

U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK) has released an oversight report on education earmarks entitled “Pork 101: How Education Earmarks School Taxpayers.”

“The tragic story of American education since 1965 shows that virtually all efforts to reform the system have failed.  Every meaningful measure of academic proficiency has either gone down or failed to improve in spite billions of dollars of education spending.  Of course, the problems in our system are manifold.  Yet, instead of leading the nation in a serious discussion about how to improve education, Congress has made the problem worse.  As this report documents, Congress’ obsession with its own self-interested parochial projects are harming students, delaying reform and undermining our future,” Dr. Coburn said.

“This report doesn’t suggest there is one easy answer. Instead, my goal is to force Congress to ask the hard questions it has avoided as it has embarked on a futile and counterproductive orgy of earmarking.  In many cases, earmarked projects are not given to schools and colleges with the greatest need but those with the best lobbyists.  Thankfully, the American people, local communities, and even filmmakers are way ahead of Congress in this debate.  People of good faith across the spectrum understand that even if we solve our debt crisis will never revitalize our economy and secure our freedoms if we don’t improve our failing education system.  This report, I hope, will give the American people information and insight that will help hold members of Congress accountable,” Dr. Coburn said.

The report focuses on two federal programs, each intended to spur innovation of the American educational system, that have become slush funds for congressional pork projects: the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) and the Fund for the Improvement of Education (FIE).  These two programs fund 97 percent of all education pork projects.  Over the last decade, Washington politicians obtained 5,563 earmarks costing nearly $2.3 billion through these programs.

Wasteful and egregious trends and projects highlighted in the report include the following:

•  This decade, federal lawmakers secured over $181 million from FIPSE and FIE in support of honorary programs named after themselves and other politicians.  (See pg. 40)
•  Jackson State University received a nearly $500,000 FIPSE earmark to establish a school of osteopathic medicine despite having no intention of establishing the school. (See pg. 34)
•  The U.S. Department of Education granted an extension of authority for an FIE earmarked project despite the fact that funds were being embezzled by its earmark manager, who is now serving 63 months in prison.  (See pg. 36)
•  A $200,000 FIPSE earmark was given to La Sierra University in California for a comprehensive university branding initiative.  (See pg. 58)
•  Oklahoma State University received a nearly $900,000 FIPSE earmark for a project that allowed participants to role play as members of Congress as they debate the current year’s budget and learn to responsibly negotiate budget decisions.  (See pg. 45)
•  Politicians have provided $3.2 million in FIPSE earmarks this decade to help fund scholarship and loan repayment programs for aspiring lawyers at Rutgers. (See pg. 38)
•  $4.3 million has gone to support Big Labor through the National Labor College in Silver Spring, Maryland.  (See pg. 55)
•  A $200,000 FIPSE earmark went to Central Washington University for “curriculum development” – aka wine studies.  (See pg. 57)
•  In FY 2010, elected officials funneled a half million dollar FIE earmark to a private entity to develop an internet safety curriculum.  Its cost was sufficient to prevent teacher layoffs in the school district where the private entity awarded the pork project was located.  In fact, the earmark would have provided 65 percent of the district’s funding shortfall.  (See pg. 30)
•  Politicians provided the University of Hawaii – West Oahu a $200,000 FIPSE earmark to produce “Primal Quest,” a film documentary on some the most studied and photographed people in the world.  (See pg. 57)
•  A $25,000 FIE earmark went to Clark County School District in Las Vegas for mariachi music. (See pg. 56)
•  While nobody likes negative children, it is a dubious national priority to earmark funds to deter negativity in children, yet lawmakers did just that.  (See pg. 59)