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Thursday, Sep 20, 2012 3:45 PM UTC

Sen. Coburn: Blocked veterans’ job bill is “crap”

After filibustering the bill, Coburn calls it the "crap" "that Congress has done for years" VIDEO

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Topics: Barack Obama, Tom Coburn, Rand Paul, veterans, Filibuster, ,

Sen. Coburn: Blocked veterans' job bill is Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. (Credit: Facebook/teamcoburn)

Tom Coburn, recently seen bemoaning that Congress never does anything, defended his party’s block of a veterans’ job bill by describing it as “crap.”

The bill, a major part of President Obama’s legislative agenda, would have used $1 billion over five years to help military veterans find jobs, potentially helping 20,000 people. Yesterday, Republicans in Congress blocked the bill, which did not get the filibuster-proof magic number of 60 votes. It went down 58-40, with five Republicans voting in favor of it.

Republicans argued that the bill is not paid for, but Democrats said it would be paid for in part by Medicare providers who are slapped with delinquency fees for their taxes.

Coburn, appearing on “Morning Joe,” argued that there are “six veterans jobs programs now, and nobody knows if they’re working.”

“If in fact we’re going to start addressing the bigger economic problems in this country,” Coburn said, “you’ve got to quit playing felonious accounting with what you’re doing, which is exactly what that bill did. It violated the Budget Control Act … it’s exactly the same kind of, pardon my word, crap that Congress has done for years that says one thing and does another. It was a gimmick, we knew it was a gimmick in terms of getting around the spending. It’s time for us to start acting responsible.”

Here’s the clip. The questions about the bill come in around 12:00:

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Jillian Rayfield is an Assistant News Editor for Salon, focusing on politics. Follow her on Twitter at @jillrayfield or email her at jrayfield@salon.com. More Jillian Rayfield.

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