Former Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn argued in a video interview with the Washington Examiner that the federal government was hurting the nation.
“Washington is not helping us a lot,” he said. “They’re hurting us. Most of the time, Washington is hurting this country.”
Asked about the rising tide of populism that has been felt by both parties, Coburn said, “You say populism, I say, what about the freedom that was promised to the average American? And why shouldn’t they have that? And why are we stealing opportunity through big government mandates and bureaucracies that eliminate an opportunity for somebody to have $60,000 a year job for their family? Why is it that the average manufacturing wage in this country is going down and not going up?”
Coburn called the recent jobs report “pitiful” because so many of the job gains were part time.
He said that younger generations of Americans deserve better, but because they didn’t live through history, they don’t realize how much better things could be.
“The tragedy is that we’ve taken something that was really great and we’ve ruined it through massive interference of federal government,” he said.
