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 Tuesday's 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" [audio clips available here; video below the jump].

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." The anchor followed up by spotlighting ObamaCare benefits: "So, therefore, you don't...support the requirement for pre-existing conditions, nor the fact that children, up until the age of 26, will come under their parents' plan?"

Rose turned to Coburn for his take on the oral arguments on ObamaCare in front of the Supreme Court. The anchor hinted at the senator's conservative position when he asked, "I think I know how you stand on health care, but with respect to the issues before the Supreme Court, do you hope the Court says to the United States, this entire health care law is unconstitutional?"

The doctor turned politician first argued that "every claim about this bill is going to be disproven, both in terms of its savings, its delivery of care, and its affordability. It's highly unaffordable. We're now $2.6 trillion, over the first 10 years- of what it's actually going to cost in increased taxes and spending by the federal government."

Coburn added, in part, that "the federal government has gotten outside of the bounds of what we were ever intended to do, and one of the ways we did that was by expanding the Commerce Clause to have us involved in things that are really not our purview under the Constitution." The CBS on-air personality finished the interview by reading the excerpt from Brooks and asking his question about pre-existing conditions and coverage of people up to age 26 on their parent's health plans.

This isn't the first time that Rose had recourse to reading left-leaning points from the Times. On January 19, 2012, the CBS anchor trumpeted a headline from its front page, which played up how Mitt Romney "seems to be dancing around the idea of what his wealth is. This is the New York Times today: 'Romney riches are being seen as new hurdle; complex web of assets is difficult to assess.'"

The full transcript of Charlie Rose's interview of Senator Tom Coburn, which aired 14 minutes into the 7 am Eastern hour of Tuesday's CBS This Morning, is available at MRC.org.