Senator Tom Coburn Town Hall: Obama 'Cannot Steal the Future From Its Grandchildren'

From KTUL-Tulsa, "Hundreds Attend Coburn Town Hall Meeting":

There was such a turnout for Thursday morning's town hall meeting with Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn in Muskogee that the meeting had to be moved from an auditorium into a larger area.

At least five hundred people showed up for the first of three town hall meetings for Coburn Thursday. Others are planned later this week and next week. Coburn is holding the meetings to discuss important issues for Oklahoma and the nation.

The meeting was to be held in the NSU-Muskogee auditorium, but there were so many people who showed up, the auditorium was emptied out and it was moved into the lobby, which is a larger area to accomodate them all.

He told the gathered crowd that he would cherish a debate on health care in the Senate and that the country cannot steal the future from its grandchildren. He also spoke to one man who indicated a Canadian health care system might be a better way to go because of the costs.

"I would dispute you on the facts," Coburn said. "The fact is that that two million Americans every year are alive and cured from cancer in this country because they DON'T have Canadian health care. We have a 30-percent better cure rate on almost every cancer than Canada does and the reason is that you may get diagnosed early but you get ability to get in line. And the average breast cancer patient in Canada today waits six months before they're in treatment. That's six months. Now, we don't want to get in a line. Access to care isn't getting in a line. There's no question it costs less in Canada, but there's no question that millions of people come to this country so that they will have life rather than lose life."

Coburn said there is little common sense in Washington and that "if the rest of Americans were as involved as the people in this room, we could fix America in one election."

Coburn urged the gathered crowd to quit hiring career politicians.

Recall that Coburn is a licensed physician specializing in family medicine and obstetrics.

Coburn is a sponsor of the Patients’ Choice Act of 2009.

The bill is described as "strengthening the relationship between the patient and the doctor; using the forces of choice and competition rather than rationing and restrictions to contain costs; and ensuring universal, affordable health care for all Americans."