While I was running for the Senate, I was often asked who my heroes in the Senate were. The first name that came to mind every time was Dr. Tom Coburn.
As a legislator, Coburn was a force of nature. A conservative stalwart who stood by his principles no matter the pressure and with whoever would stand with him regardless of party, Coburn’s entire career was a profile in courage.
Coburn believed so strongly that America’s best wisdom wasn’t held on Wall Street or Pennsylvania Avenue but rather on Main Street among the small-business owners, doctors, families, and workers who really keep our country going.
Coburn blasted a path for conservative outsiders to take on the Washington orthodoxy on everything from the national debt to term limits to our broken healthcare system, and his career was an inspiration for me to leave my business and run for Senate.
His bedside manner was often brusque. But on the tough issues, like any good doctor, Coburn told people what they needed to hear, not what they wanted to hear.
To Coburn, our towering national debt was not a thorn in America’s side: It was a supreme moral failing. As one of the few true fiscal hawks in recent decades, Coburn wore the nickname “Dr. No” as a badge of courage, understanding that there’s nothing commendable about spending our grandchildren’s money just because we won’t be at the table when the bill comes due. I’ve been proud to follow his example in voting against out-of-control spending measures in my short time in the Senate, and his outspoken criticism of both parties for spending like sailors has inspired many others to be more vocal in trying to right our fiscal ship.
If there are two things that could fix Washington more than any other, they’re strict term limits and more accountability for Congress. Inspired by Coburn, I made my pledge to serve only two terms a fixture of my Senate campaign and followed his example by refusing to accept a congressional pension when I leave. Last year, my bill to make pensions for Congress optional passed the Senate, putting us one step closer to getting rid of this outdated taxpayer-funded perk altogether.
“No Budget, No Pay,” a bill Coburn championed in the Senate, was the first bill I introduced after taking office in 2018. It’s a simple measure: Members of Congress don’t get a paycheck until they pass a budget. I’m proud to say it has now cleared committee thanks to work from fellow conservative outsiders such as Sen. Rick Scott and Sen. David Perdue.
As a family physician who continued to see patients even as he served in Congress, Coburn always had a special passion for fixing our broken healthcare system. He understood better than anyone that our healthcare woes begin at a fundamentally broken system in need of transparency, more choice for patients, and market-driven reforms to put decision-making power back into the hands of patients and their care providers.
My bills to lower prescription drug prices and ensure that every patient knows what they have to pay before they get a bill were introduced with invaluable input from Coburn. As we all should, he recognized that no matter how vast the distance between our positions seem to be, healthcare is and always should be a bipartisan issue where compromise is necessary to help patients.
In the summer of 2018, I was honored that Coburn came to Indiana to campaign with me. I’ll never forget what he said when a young man from the crowd at one of our events asked him, “What can I do now if I want to be a Senator someday?”
Coburn didn’t tell him to go to law school. He didn’t tell him to run for local office or intern in a congressional office. “Go work really hard at something for 40 years so you have something to say when you get there,” Coburn replied.
Coburn ushered in the era of the outsider in Washington, the effects of which are only just now beginning to be realized. I think we would get a much better product out of Washington with more people like him, people whose beliefs come from a deep well of real-world experience.
Dr. Tom Coburn was more than just an inspiration for me and other conservatives to leave the private sector and shake up “business as usual” in Washington. He was one of the greatest senators, most effective problem solvers, and most important conservative voices of our time: the great outsider.
Sen. Mike Braun, a Republican, is the junior senator from Indiana. You can follow him on Twitter: @SenatorBraun
