With hundreds dead from cholera, Sen Tom Coburn (R-OK) STILL opposed quick aid to Haiti

[ProgressiveEconomist]

in an October 8th letter to Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Is Coburn the WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD?

WHAT'S YOUR OPINION?

From http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/11/04/ap/business/main7023343.shtml :

"Another Obstacle Stalls $1.15B In US Aid For Haiti ... $1.15B In Reconstruction Aid Still Stuck In Washington Nov. 04, 2010

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - As if Haitians living in tents and under scraps of plastic don't have enough to grapple with as a tropical storm bears down and cholera spreads, the US Congress has put up another obstacle to delivering the $1.15 billion in reconstruction money it promised back in March. The State Department still has to prove the money won't be stolen or misused - not an easy task in a country notorious for corruption. "Given the weak governmental institutions that existed in Haiti even before the earthquake, Congress wants to be sure we have that accountability in place before these funds are obligated," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said. Crowley had no immediate estimate ... for how long this bureaucratic step - known as a Section 1007 proceeding - will take to complete,...

Haiti aid organisers had hoped to avoid this. While the country has a reputation for corruption, measures were put in place - including a reconstruction oversight commission co-chaired by former President Bill Clinton - to ensure such concerns would not hold up the money. It has been nearly 10 months since Haiti's capital was levelled by an earthquake that killed at least 230,000 and left millions homeless. Seven months have also gone by since Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton promised $1.15 billion in reconstruction money for Haiti meant to build homes, create jobs and improve lives. ...

'As Haiti faces another natural disaster and is still reeling from the recent cholera outbreak, this is not the time to delay assistance,' Sen. John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat and Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman who sponsored the aid bill, told the AP on Thursday. In September, an AP investigation revealed that not one penny of the promised US reconstruction money had arrived, due to a combination of bureaucracy, disorganisation and a lack of urgency in Washington. ... requirements like these can hold up aid money for years. Some of the millions promised by President George W. Bush to help Mexico fight drug cartels still hasn't been released because of conditions that US lawmakers put on that aid.

"There is no question we should do everything we can to assist our neighbours in Haiti," Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma wrote in an Oct. 8 letter explaining why he objects to quick approval of the bill Kerry and Tennessee Republican Sen. Bob Corker wrote to authorise the spending. Haiti must first commit to fighting corruption, and any additional Haiti spending must come only at the expense of other State Department programs, Coburn said. "I do not object to fulfilling our pledge to assist Haiti recover. However, I believe our charity today should not come at the expense of the next generation," Coburn wrote in the letter, addressed to Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. "Therefore, any additional aid we provide must be paid for with cuts to lower priority programs elsewhere within the federal government's bloated $3.7 trillion an7nual budget."

[Mika]

1. He's on CSPAN WJ right now.

http://www.cspan.org/Series/Washington-Journal.aspx

[ProgressiveEconomist]

3. Thanks for that tip. Did anyone ask him about his Haiti-aid hold amid terrible conditions there?

[ProgressiveEconomist]

6. Coburn's CSPAN interview is over. Someone asked him about his "secret holds",

but I heard no one ask about his secret hold on aid for Haiti.

But I missed the beginning of the interview. Did anyone hear the wholde thing? Was Haiti mentioned?

[hobbit709]

2. What's worse is the fact that he's a DOCTOR.

Evidently he swore the Hypocritic Oath instead of the Hippocratic one

[ProgressiveEconomist]

5. And he's on the "Deficit Commission". That just came out in his CSPAN interview.

[Vinca]

4. Hey . . . they're poor, they're black. Colburn is probably sorry

he can't export the poor and the black from the U.S. to Haiti.