Jonathan Bernstein, Columnist

In Praise (Mostly) of Tom Coburn

Tom Coburn has been a consequential politician

January 17, 2014 at 4:52 PM UTC

Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics. A former professor of political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio, he wrote A Plain Blog About Politics.

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Senator Tom Coburn, conservative Republican from Oklahoma, is cutting short his second term, resigning two years early at the end of the current Congress.

Coburn is a great example of how individual Senators can matter. He is, for the most part, a rare breed -- an honest budget-cutter. Unlike those who use small-government rationales to attack programs they oppose while abandoning such principles for programs they support, he genuinely wants a radically smaller government.