Top 50 Tom Coburn Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “All change starts with a distant rumble at the grassroots level.”

— Tom Coburn

2. “Social Security and Medicare represent promises made and we must keep these commitments.”

— Tom Coburn

3. “The vast amount of waste and sheer stupidity in government – from the Pentagon to the Food and Drug Administration – could fill committee agendas for years.”

— Tom Coburn

4. “You deliver 2,000 babies or better – 3,000 by that time. And that’s, you know, at minimum, three people each. And then if you take grandparents or grandparents of siblings and aunts and uncles, you know, you get – a 100,000 votes outta that.”

— Tom Coburn

5. “My heart aches for less divisiveness, less polarization Less mindless partisanship, which at times sounds almost hateful to the ear of Americans. How we conduct ourselves and how we treat you, Judge Roberts, can be a great start toward reconciliation in our country.”

— Tom Coburn

6. “The ripping and tearing of an unborn child from his mother’s womb through the hands of another, and we say, “That’s fine; you have a constitutional right to do that.””

— Tom Coburn

7. “Everybody is gonna die from something. And so the deal is how to use each day to move things forward for both you and the people you love and the country you love.”

— Tom Coburn

8. “Silicone breast implants make you healthier.”

— Tom Coburn

9. “When we have heartbeat and brain waves, we refuse to accept it as the presence of life – this lack of logic of which we approach this issue because we like and we favor convenience over ethics. We favor convenience over the hard parts of life that actually make us grow.”

— Tom Coburn

10. “There will be no insurance industry left in three years.”

— Tom Coburn

11. “I’m very disturbed at the picture that was painted by Senator Ted Kennedy that Samuel Alito is not a man of his word, that he is dishonest. The implication that he is not reliable I don’t think is a fair characterization of what I’ve read.”

— Tom Coburn

12. “I would like to believe I would not have behaved differently had I not made a term limits pledge, but my own frailties and human desire for prestige and position tell me my term limits pledge did make a difference in how I approached my job in Congress.”

— Tom Coburn

13. “And I thought I would just share with you what science says today about silicone breast implants. If you have them, you’re healthier than if you don’t. In fact, there’s no science that shows that silicone breast implants are detrimental and, in fact, they make you healthier.”

— Tom Coburn

14. “I asked Chief Justice John Roberts about this definition of life – you know, what is life? The Supreme Court can’t figure it out or doesn’t want us to figure it out; the fact that we know that there is no life if there’s no heartbeat and brainwaves.”

— Tom Coburn

15. “Matter of fact, the interesting friendships are the ones that are divergent.”

— Tom Coburn

16. “I believe all life has value, from conception to natural death. And I believe the intentional taking of human life, except to save lives, should be a capital offense, as it is in most states in America today.”

— Tom Coburn

17. “People that had the guts to put their loyalty to the Constitution ahead of their loyalty to their political party were citizen legislators.”

— Tom Coburn

18. “I’m proud of our country that we elected Barack Obama. I mean, it says something about us nationally. You know, it’s kind of like crowning your checker when you get to the end of your checker board. Here’s another thing that says America’s special: Barack Obama, president of the United States.”

— Tom Coburn

19. “Career politicians do not have the courage to prioritize spending and say no to demanding special interest groups who do not reflect the best interests of the country.”

— Tom Coburn

20. “The voting records of virtually every member of Congress reveal that the oath of office is more a ceremonial gesture than a sacred commitment.”

— Tom Coburn

21. “Charity requires sacrifice, and members of Congress could set a good example of charity by giving up their pay increase.”

— Tom Coburn

22. “Careerism: the self-centered philosophy of governing to win the next election above all else.”

— Tom Coburn

23. “Careerism in Washington “goes to the heart of what’s wrong in America right now.””

— Tom Coburn

24. “What makes this mentality dangerous is that when the team is held together by careerism and mindless partisanship, individual members are punished for thinking for themselves.”

— Tom Coburn

25. “I still believe that term limits is the best way to ensure that the next generation, not the next election, is the central concern in our elected bodies.”

— Tom Coburn

26. “The traits in career politicians the public detests most are produced when ego triumphs over principle.”

— Tom Coburn

27. “Everybody in America is going to have to sacrifice to help us rebuild the Gulf Coast. Every government program, every individual, we are all going to have to sacrifice.”

— Tom Coburn

28. “Few things infuse a member of Congress with more courage than self-imposed term limits or an imminent retirement. The issues they choose to focus on in their final months say a great deal about what are really the most important issues in the country.”

— Tom Coburn

29. “The longer a politician bears power, the more he is controlled by that power.”

— Tom Coburn

30. “My relationship with Barack Obama isn’t based on my political philosophy or his.”

— Tom Coburn

31. “The career politicians in Washington had transformed a government “for the people” into a government for themselves and for special interests.”

— Tom Coburn

32. “I firmly believe that the court should take another direction on many of these moral issues that face us.”

— Tom Coburn

33. “It is easy to see how after receiving this adoration for a term or two most members become convinced they are indispensable.”

— Tom Coburn

34. “You’re going to die sooner.”

— Tom Coburn

35. “The founding fathers never once rationalized getting in power and having control so they could stay in power.”

— Tom Coburn

36. “The question that arises as we use all these adjectives and adverbs to describe our physicians as we approach a Supreme Court nominee is where are we in America when we decide that it’s legal to kill our unborn children?”

— Tom Coburn

37. “The danger of what’s happening right now in terms of using reconciliation is, the purpose of the Senate is going to be defeated. And that is to bring consensus to big issues in this country so that we have a reasoned and thoughtful approach and that the American public buys into it.”

— Tom Coburn

38. “I can’t see the country electing another Bush, i love Jeb Bush – I think he’s a nice guy. I just can’t see it.”

— Tom Coburn

39. “A super-legislator body is not what the court was intended to be, When I ponder our country and its greatness, its weakness, its potential, my heart aches for less divisiveness, less polarization, less finger-pointing, less bitterness, less mindless partisanship.”

— Tom Coburn

40. “When I came to Washington, I was troubled to observe so many similarities between the behaviors of drug-addicted patients and my political colleagues. In Washington power is like morphine.”

— Tom Coburn

41. “It is a real issue, a measurement of our society, when we say it’s fine to destroy unborn life who has a heartbeat at 16 days post-conception.”

— Tom Coburn

42. “One poll showed that Americans have a higher opinion of witches, the IRS and hemorrhoids than Congress.”

— Tom Coburn

43. “Republicans should simply focus on first principles and give the American people what they want – an honest party dedicated to common sense, fiscal responsibility and limited government. If we govern to save the country, we’ll do well as a party.”

— Tom Coburn

44. “An easily accessible and transparent database of contract information will bring sunshine into the confusing and sometimes shadowy practice of government contracting.”

— Tom Coburn

45. “Expose widespread waste and duplication in federal spending.”

— Tom Coburn

46. “I believe keeping our promises should be our highest priority and that means saving Social Security and Medicare while preserving the American dream for our children and grandchildren.”

— Tom Coburn

47. “The earmark favor factory needs to be boarded up and demolished, not turned over to new management that may or may not have a better eye for earmarks with ‘merit.’”

— Tom Coburn

48. “Lesbianism is so rampant in some of the schools in southeast Oklahoma that they’ll only let one girl go to the bathroom. Now think about it. Think about that issue. How is it that that’s happened to us?”

— Tom Coburn

49. “How is it that we have sodomy protected under that due process but prostitution unprotected? It’s schizophrenic.”

— Tom Coburn

50. “We must have government that spends less and does less.”

— Tom Coburn