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Coburn: There's a Power Greater Than the President on Entitlements

'It's called math'

January 22, 2013

Sen. Tom Coburn (R., Okla.) said the math of Medicare and Social Security will eventually overcome Republicans and Democrats and force reform Tuesday morning on Morning Joe:

JOE SCARBOROUGH: Your issue, like mine, when I came in, in '94, like your issue when you came in, in '94 when we came in together, your issue since then, has been the national debt. I was -- I said really the only part of the speech that really caused me concern was the -- when he touched on entitlements, it sounded like he still might be in political mode there.

TOM COBURN: Well, you know, it doesn't matter what mode he's in, it doesn't matter what mode the Republicans are in, there's a power greater than both of them. It's called math and the math is going to consume us.

SCARBOROUGH: Explain.

COBURN: Medicare Part A trust fund will be out of money in five years. Social Security disability will be out of money in 18 months. Ultimately, we're going to do something about those things. So we can play the political game and not address the issue because it's hard politically, but the -- that's my point is the real leadership, pull the Republicans together, pull the country together, with the Democrats, with the independents and say, here's a problem that's in front of our country. All of us are going to have to give. Let's go solve this before -- the point I would make, the longer we delay, the solutions for these very big problems, the more painful they're going to be.

Full segment: