Gayle King to Tom Coburn: Deficit-Neutral Disaster Relief Risks 'Alienating Your Constituents'

On Wednesday's CBS This Morning, open Obama supporter [1] Gayle King strongly hinted to Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn that he would face voter backlash for seeking cuts in the federal budget to pay for tornado disaster relief: "You voted against relief plans for Hurricane Sandy, and it sounds that you would do the same if it was raised in Oklahoma. Do you worry about alienating your constituents?"

The Republican politician shot back that he didn't want the next generation to foot the bill for the recovery from the EF-5 tornado that devastated Moore, Oklahoma on Monday, and then strongly criticized the multi-billion dollar Hurricane Sandy relief package audio available here [2]; video below ]:

SEN. TOM COBURN, (R), OKLAHOMA: Look, my constituents...don't want us to charge our everyday living expenses to their kids....why should we saddle them when we're wasting money? The Hurricane Sandy bill – look, I voted for the first section of that that came through the first time. Then, we added another $60 billion...It became a Christmas tree, and everybody added everything in the world. If you actually go look at that bill, the $20 billion that's actually necessary for the Sandy expenses and rebuilding in Sandy was there. We added $40 billion on top of it, and then charged it to our kids....it's just not an appropriate way to run the future for our children.

King then replied, "Some say they need to come up with another bill that's not tied to budget cuts, but I know that that's another topic."

Back in December 2012, the CBS anchor hyped [3] possible negative political consequences as she urged then-Senator Jim DeMint to cave to President Obama's demands for tax hikes: "The public is viewing the Republican Party very negatively. Are you concerned about that?"

The transcript of the relevant portion of the interview of Senator Tom Coburn on Wednesday's CBS This Morning:

GAYLE KING: Senator, you voted against relief plans for Hurricane Sandy, and it sounds that you would do the same if it was raised in Oklahoma. Do you worry about alienating your constituents?

COBURN: No. Look, my constituents want – they don't want us to charge our everyday living expenses to their kids. The very kids that were rescued from the school; the very kids that we're interested in – why should we saddle them when we're wasting money?

The Hurricane Sandy bill – look, I voted for the first section of that that came through the first time. Then, we added another $60 billion, of which, 40 billion won't be spent for the next five years and – why did we do that? It became a Christmas tree, and everybody added everything in the world. If you actually go look at that bill, the $20 billion that's actually necessary for the Sandy expenses and rebuilding in Sandy was there. We added $40 billion on top of it, and then charged it to our kids-

KING: All right. Senator – Senator, thank you-

COBURN: You know, it's just not an appropriate way to run the future for our children.

KING: Some say they need to come up with another bill that's not tied to budget cuts, but I know that that's another topic. Thank you, Senator Coburn, for joining us this morning. We appreciate it-

COBURN: You're welcome.