Coburn Brushes Off Charlie Rose's Citation of Pseudo-Conservative Brooks

Charlie Rose boosted New York Times's staff "conservative" David Brooks for his endorsement of the individual mandate on the 27 March 2012 edition of CBS This Morning, but Senator Tom Coburn was having none of it. Rose quoted from Brooks, whom he labeled a "a Hamiltonian, and someone...you share views with." Coburn slapped down the pro-ObamaCare argument: "We just don't have the authority to tell people to do that."

The Oklahoma Republican continued, in part, that "Brooks...[is] a Hamiltonian. I'm not. I'm a Madisonian, and that says, as government grows, freedom diminishes, and what we've seen is our freedom diminished."