Coburn Makes The TIME 100, Obama Talks About His Friend
LEADERS Tom Coburn
U.S. Senator, 65
By Barack Obama
April 18, 2013
“Tom Coburn and I don’t always agree on the issues. In fact, on the surface, we seem pretty different. I grew up in Hawaii; he grew up in Oklahoma. I’m trying to keep up with two daughters at home; Tom has already raised three.
But after we entered the Senate at the same time, our wives, Michelle and Carolyn, hit it off at an orientation dinner. Pretty soon, we did too. Since then, we’ve bonded over family and faith. And we’ve harnessed our friendship and mutual respect to find places where we can agree and work together to move this country forward.
We co-sponsored the “Google for Government” act, which made government more transparent and more accountable to the American people. We worked together to cut down on earmarks. And we continue to agree on the need to reduce wasteful spending and close tax loopholes that benefit only the well-off and well connected.