Breaking news: Senator tells unvarnished truth
“The world is waiting for us to see: Are we going to be Greece in two years or are we going to be grownups? And our problem is our political class in this country refuses to take the responsibility and actually maybe lose an election to do the right thing for the country. And we don’t have that leadership. In either party, it’s how do we protect our own? What we ought to be asking is how do we protect our future.” – Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn (R) on MSNBC’s Morning Joe
The US is not going to be in the situation that Greece is in two years from now regardless of how it handles it's public debt in the short term. The US is carrying less than half the debt (%of GDP) as Greece and the US can bring this number down through a modest financial recovery. What Greece shows us is that austerity measures are not without fault and can cause further economic downturn. Coburn would love to starve federal government to the point of having nothing left to spend on social services, entitlements, safety nets, etc. But that doesn't mean he's a grownup.
I have to question whether he himself would risk losing an election to do the right thing. But I agree with the point he made. He may not be a grownup, but at least he's saying grownup things.