Coburn: Americans should be 'disgusted' with Congress over debt-ceiling hike

Conservative Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) on Thursday morning slammed Congress for its anticipated approval of President Obama's request to raise the federal debt limit, saying they had done far too little to slash wasteful government spending.

"We have done nothing, zero," said Coburn, speaking from the Senate floor. "Americans should be disgusted with Congress. What we care about here is party power, not fixing the problems of this country. 

"We don't want to do the hard work of living within our means like every other business, every other family does," continued the junior senator from Oklahoma.

Upon taking the floor, Coburn had a spat with several of his Democratic colleagues, arguing that the 2.5 hours of debate Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) scheduled for the procedural vote on the pending resolution to disapprove of the president's request was insufficient. 

"I come to the floor aghast that we have entered into a unanimous consent to spend less than 2.5 hours talking about raising the debt ceiling another $1.2 trillion dollars," said Coburn.

But assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) called the vote, which is set to begin at noon, "routine" when he came to the floor.

Durbin went on to say that although he agrees with Coburn that much work still needs to be done to reduce government spending, current bills need to be paid with a debt-ceiling hike.