The Too High Cost Of The Government's Lockdown Solution To The Covid-19 Pandemic

The purpose of this post is to explain how the government’s shutdown response to the Covid-19 pandemic has separated us from the country’s founding principles & to highlight the cost & potential cost to us all.

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”  - The Tenth Amendment. 

 

With the exception of banning travel to the United States from places like Communist China, where the Wuhan coronavirus originated, the President has no power or authority under the Constitution for health issues including no involvement in the current Covid-19 pandemic.  The national government has limited & enumerated powers under the Constitution & no general authority over state governments.  In 1944 Congress extended its authority to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations to the Executive Branch under Section 361 of the Public Health Service Act by granting the Surgeon General the authority “to prevent the introduction, transmission, or spread of communicable diseases from foreign countries into the States or possessions” – hence, on January 31 Trump banned foreign nationals who had recently been in China from entering the U.S. when the prevalence of the Wuhan coronavirus was still being hidden & denied by Communist China.  Also, on March 11 Trump suspended travel to the U.S. for foreign nationals who had recently been in 26 European countries.

 

Our forefathers established a Republic based on a limited federal form of government whose only proper moral purpose is to preserve individual liberty including protecting man’s rights to his own life, his own liberty, & his own property while also protecting him from physical violence – all as described in the Constitution.  The national government’s functions do not include police powers – principally safety & health matters which are the responsibility of the states. 

 

But in accordance with the Tenth Amendment both the national government & state governments have been in violation of the Constitution in their pursuit of fighting the pandemic when they present guidelines or actually suspend, disregard, & ignore constitutional rights to liberty & property without due process of law, to freely exercise religion, to peacefully assemble, to fulfill contracts, to receive equal protection of the law, & to keep & bear arms – all violations to the Constitution that governments have done in locking down America under the semblance of flattening the Covid-19 curve so that the nation’s healthcare system would not be overwhelmed.

 

In short, the government suppressed 83% of our economy to ensure that we did not overwhelm the 17% represented by healthcare. 

 

Click here to see what is happening to our Republic when Judge Napolitano sums this up by referencing a cartoon of the framers signing the Constitution with Washington turning to Madison facetiously saying “Let me get this straight, none of this counts if people get sick, right?” 

 

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Coronaviruses mostly infect bats, pigs, & small mammals, but they mutate easily & can jump from animals to humans & from one human to another.  Four coronavirus strains cause common colds – from which we know there is no cure as we all have had to let common colds run their course no matter how much chicken noodle soup we ate. 

 

The Wuhan coronavirus is officially called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, or SARS-CoV-2.  The disease it causes is Covid-19 with the “d” standing for disease & “19” standing for the year the disease emerged in Communist China – hence the identifying name Wuhan coronavirus.

 

The Wuhan coronavirus is believed to have originated in one or a combination of two ways: 1) the virus may have escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology or its associate the Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory, or 2) the virus may have originated in one of Wuhan’s large wet animal & seafood markets.  See photos below – notice the masks.

Click here to see a video of the disgusting operation of sick wild animal slaughter for human consumption in Wuhan’s wet markets.   Upon looking @ the wet markets Paul McCartney said “Let’s face it, it is a little bit medieval eating bats.” 

 

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“I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.” - James Madison, Father of the Constitution, writing in 1794 regarding his intention that the federal government could only expend money for purposes specifically enumerated in the Constitution.

 

It is neither the purpose nor a right of Congress to “attend to what generosity & humanity require, but to what the Constitution & their duty require.” – Virginia Congressman William Branch Giles condemning a spending measure in 1796.  Giles also served as VA governor & VA senator for 11 years.

 

“We have the right as individuals, to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity; but as members of Congress we have no right to appropriate a dollar of the public money.” - Congressman Davy Crockett speaking on the house floor in 1827

 

“I cannot find any authority in the Constitution for public charity.”  To approve the measure “would be contrary to the letter & the spirit of the Constitution & subversive to the whole theory upon which the Union of these States is founded.” – President Franklin Pierce vetoing a popular measure in 1854.

 

“I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution, & I do not believe that the power & duty of the General Government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly related to the public service or benefit.”  President Grover Cleveland vetoing a bill for relief charity – one of many vetoes during his two terms in office regarding bills that violated the Spending Claus of the Constitution in his opinion.

 

“If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, & will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one, subject to particular exceptions.” – James Madison

 

“Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated.” - Thomas Jefferson’s letter to Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury 1801 to 1814.

 

“The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few & defined . . . to be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, & foreign commerce.”  The Federalist No. 45: Madison

 

“Ours is the job of interpreting the Constitution.  And that document isn’t some inkblot on which litigants may project their hopes & dreams for a new & perfected tort law, but a carefully drafted text judges are charged with applying according to its original meaning.  If a party wishes to claim a constitutional right, it is incumbent on him to tell us where it lies, not assume or stipulate with the other side that it must be in there someplace.”  Neil Gorsuch, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, writing in a concurring opinion in a 2016 case.

 

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Regarding the coronavirus hysteria in America that originated in Wuhan, Hubei province China, & with the above as background, you can see how disturbed I am about the federal government’s & several state governments’ assaults on our God given rights & liberties delineated in our glorious Constitution, including the unchecked unconstitutional spending plans to relieve economic hardships brought on by government’s ill-advised involvement concerning the spread of Covid-19 in America – economic hardships caused by these same governments imposing guidelines & mandates that not only are deliberately grinding commerce to a halt putting businesses out of business & people out of work but then telling the owners of these businesses that they must provide family leave & sick leave to discharged employees. 

 

America was founded on the principles of limited government, personal responsibility, & free enterprise.  Government @ every level has trampled on these founding principles in trying to look like they are helping fight the Covid-19 pandemic summarized as follows:

 

Limited Government:  The Covid-19 pandemic is the largest pandemic since the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 in which the federal government was little involved & the DJIA not only never went appreciably lower during the pandemic it was appreciably higher a year & a half after the peak of the U.S. infection.  Although the index of factory employment dipped in 1918 it too was higher by 1920.  The Spanish flu infected more than a quarter of the world’s population & 675,000 Americans died – source the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC).  Although there was not as much social contact in the 1918 workplace as there is today few workers had sick leave & unemployment insurance didn’t exist.  Countries were preoccupied with World War I & governments had little formal roles in fighting infectious diseases – in fact progressive Democrat President Woodrow Wilson never publicly mentioned the Spanish flu epidemic.

 

Contrast the federal government’s correct hands off approach to the above described 1918 Spanish flu pandemic with today’s federal government initially issuing social distancing guidelines telling Americans to stay more than six feet apart, refrain from nonessential travel in airplanes, stop going out to dinner in restaurants, & avoid gatherings of more than ten people – like @ NBA games or church services.  These initial federal guidelines were followed shortly by “Stay @ Home” orders from governors & mayors mandating the shutting down of schools & businesses these officials did not deem essential – like gun stores, but liquor & marijuana stores that bring in large amounts of revenue to states were deemed essential.  Businesses previously deemed non-essential had been allowed to operate between 5 AM & 8 PM in some states such as NJ. 

 

Right out of the box, once the coronavirus was finally recognized as being in America, Congress did what it does best – on March 3 it threw $8.3 billion in emergency spending @ the problem to fund the development of a new vaccine, for health agencies & testing, & for small business loan subsidies – this step was taken as an emergency measure even though the coronavirus was generally known of since before Christmas & the first case has since been confirmed to have been in Wuhan, China on November 17 – eleven days before Thanksgiving.  Never mind that Swiss multinational healthcare company, Hoffmann-La Roche, has been working on a vaccine since mid-January, it was still an emergency to Congress & the health experts in the federal government in March. 

 

Congress followed by passing a second bill on March 18 that raised the stakes to $100 billion.  That bill provided free testing for Covid-19, tax credits for employers who offered paid sick leave, & increases to unemployment benefits & food assistance.

 

The third strike was the $2.2 trillion, 880 page Coronavirus Aid, Relief, & Economic Security Act (CARES Act), that no Member of Congress read, as usual, that not only addressed repairing the economic damage caused by the government itself in its attempt to fend off the threat of Covid-19, but that also exploited the Wuhan coronavirus fear as Pelosi held up the CARES legislation to try to include non-virus related items pertaining to the Green New Deal, sanctuary cities, & the Kennedy Center opera house.  Finally the CARES Act passed into law on March 27, including direct cash payments to households, bailouts for airlines & other industries, & loans & grants for small businesses.

 

But even worse, the CARES Act allocates $510 billion to support loans to large businesses with $56 billion going to the airlines & $454 billion given to the Federal Reserve to absorb losses the Fed incurs in their uncharted lending to finance private businesses, states, & cities – as opposed to its open market operations exclusively in U.S. treasury securities (& more recently expanded to include mortgage securities).  CARES authorizes the Fed to buy cities’ & states’ debt of up to two years, & to open loans to 76 borrowers, including the 50 states & DC, counties of @ least 2 million residents & cities of @ least 1 million.  You can expect this criteria to expand to smaller cities & counties.  It is also expected that the Fed will extend loans to small & midsize businesses & nonprofit hospitals & universities.   

 

If the Fed leverages this money 10 to 1 following fractional reserve banking principles like your favorite local bank does every day of the year then $4.54 trillion will be available for lending meaning the CARES Act really expands the money supply by $6,286 billion ($2.200 T + $4.086 T).  You can see that the CARES Act results in way too many dollars provided freely by the government chasing too few goods caused by the government locking down commerce – which will result in the reduction in purchasing power of our dollars known as inflation.

 

Before the ink was dry on the signing into law of the Cares Act there was talk of relief Bill #4 & even #5.  The half measure, Bill #3.5 for $486 billion that focused on small businesses & hospitals was signed into law on Friday.  This funding may last only days before it is exhausted.

 

In the last few weeks $2.7 trillion has been added to the national debt based on unanimous consent or voice vote in the Senate – not an actual recorded vote.  The House passed Bill #3.5 by a margin of 388 to 5.

 

By the above actions Congress has violated both the Commerce & Spending clauses of the Constitution.  Congress has the responsibility to sustain the spirit of commerce by encouraging & simplifying it, not to participate in spending plans that are not for the common defense, or other general, national, not local, or state benefit.

 

Your tax money is no object or consideration to Congress.  Students of economics know that this type of deficit spending described above will only result in a lower standard of living for future generations who inherit a less robust economy than they otherwise would have realized.  We have debt only in an accounting sense – not an economic sense.  The budget is always balanced: Spending = Tax receipts + Borrowing.  As the share of the total resources available that is taken by the government increases the economy becomes less & less robust.

 

Now I have recommended the elimination of the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) for years but the tragic performance & lack of performance of this Department & specifically the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) & the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases – one of 27 institutes & centers that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH) within HHS – have failed miserably regarding Covid-19.  Their recommendations, like social distancing, reminded me of Doc Adams in the Gunsmoke TV show, cast in the 1870s, waiting for the latest medical opinion to come from St. Louis to Dodge as he sat by helplessly as people suffered & died.  Actually this is worse because Doc Adams did not shut down the entire frontier. 

 

Don’t we all social distance when we know someone has the flu or cold & our fear of contagion makes us avoid sick people?  Isn’t this just common sense?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

None of the above big government actions follow the Constitution & specifically are in violation of many sections & paragraphs of the Constitution as indicated above.  It is important to understand that the Constitution only secures a limited number of rights & the Bill of Rights does not grant anyone rights – all of the rights mentioned in the Bill of Rights are designed as limits on government & today, with the physical restrictions & outrageous spending employed because of the Covid-19 pandemic, we have no limits on government authority so all we can hope is that when the pandemic passes that government gives us our freedoms back.  The question is will the government give back what it has taken away?  If we keep moving in this government dependent socialist direction it is a leap of faith we will not clear one day.

 

So with the above refresher background, the current federal guidelines & state orders described above are in violation of the Constitution of We the People of the United States as follows: 1) the prohibition of the free exercise of religion & assembly violates the First Amendment; 2) the picking of winners & losers, as in providing money to some industries, like the airlines, but not others in the rescue bills, violates the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment; 3) the impairing of the ability of people to fulfill contracts by forcing them to shelter in place is a violation of Article I, Section 10; 4) the threatening of seizure & jailing people, without a warrant or due process, for disregarding orders to not assemble is in violation of Amendments IV & XIV; 5) the deprivation of liberty & property without due process of law when ordered to shelter in place with no means of securing the necessities of life violates the Fifth & Fourteenth Amendments; & 6) the shutting down of gun stores to prevent the sale of firearms or ammunition is a violation of the Second Amendment.

 

Here’s what the above constitutional violations have specifically meant to people all over the country: 1) members of a church in Greenville, MS sitting in their cars with windows closed in the church parking lot listening to a church service on the radio, were asked to leave by police, & those who didn’t were each served with $500 tickets; 2) a paddle boarder alone on the ocean in Malibu was arrested; 3) San Clemente officials ordered the filling in of a skateboarding park with 37 tons of sand; 4) a man in Brighton, CO was handcuffed for playing ball with his wife & six year old daughter in an empty field; 5) the mayor of Louisville, KY prohibited drive-thru church services in which people never left their cars but did not prohibit a multitude of other non-religious drive-ins & drive-thrus like drive-thru liquor stores; 6) the Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer micromanaged her constitutional violations by proclaiming which products stores could sell – people could stand ten feet away from cordoned off paint & vegetable seeds they could not buy after buying lottery tickets, liquor, & candy; 7) Whitmer also OKed boat rides for a man & his dog in the lake to go fishing as long as the boat did not have a motor; 8) the newly elected KY governor sent state police out to record license plates of people attending mass church services on Easter Sunday so the people could be contacted & forced to self quarantine for two weeks; 9) Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot warned people they will be locked up for going to local parks – later violating her own stay @ home orders when she was caught getting her hair done saying she is in the public light & needs to look good (much like NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio being driven to his gym, while other gyms are closed).

 

But the most egregious example was NJ Governor Phil Murphy blatantly saying it was “above my pay grade” & that he “wasn’t thinking of the Bill Of Rights when he implemented these bans” to work, assemble, associate, & worship.  Early on, on March 16 I heard Governor Murphy say if this pandemic wasn’t as bad as forecast it was “on him” as if that meant anything tangible.

 

We are currently a long way from the limited government principles the country was founded on.

 

Personal Responsibility:   As presented above the government has provided a social safety net that gets larger every day even without the Covid-19 pandemic excuse to expand government’s reach.  In order to not need the government’s social safety net members of my generation did not consider themselves personally responsible until they had saved an amount equal to one years’ living expenses in a rainy day fund.  And a company would do the same managing its working capital & current assets to maintain the short term liquidity to cover projected liabilities for the next year (less employee wages because employees had covered that themselves).  Had this scenario happened nobody would be happy but everyone would be personally responsible & the three & a half spending binges described above would not be necessary.

 

Contrast this with 40% of the population saying they could not readily afford an unexpected expense of $400 – i.e., four in ten would have to either borrow, sell something, or not be able to pay if faced with a $400 emergency expense.  Source – Federal Reserve report dated May 2018 on well-being of U.S. households in 2017.  In addition the report found that one in five adults cannot cover their current month’s bills, & one in four skipped a medical treatment in the past year due to an inability to pay.

 

Putting the emergency expense situation in perspective for many readers – in the spring of 1970 today’s $400 emergency expense would equate to $58.74.

 

Now this Wuhan coronavirus may have suddenly been upon us but there is another financial catastrophe that has been known for years.  Namely, page two of your personalized Social Security statement, available to anyone online or by mail after age 60, reads “Your current benefits are based on current law.  Congress has made changes to the law in the past & can do so @ any time.  The law governing benefit amounts may change because, by 2035, the payroll taxes collected will be enough to pay only about 80% of scheduled benefits.”

 

I have never met one person @ my FairTax seminars or anyone who has participated in radio or TV programs I have been on, including elected representatives, who was aware of this warning that plainly says that Social Security benefits will be reduced by 20% in the not too distant future unless changes are made to the Social Security entitlement program.  The current loss of jobs & the closing of businesses only exacerbates the matter, shortening the time to society’s day of reckoning as the deceitfully named Social Security Trust Fund runs out of IOUs all the faster & the payroll taxes are not enough to pay scheduled benefits.

 

There is no personal responsibility in this regard @ all & the elected temporary politicians are just hoping that in their game of musical chairs they are not standing (i.e., out of office) when the music stops.

 

Free Enterprise:  At America’s founding there were only limited government & personal responsibility so the natural attraction of people was not to non-existent welfare programs but rather to free enterprise – or capitalism - an economic & political system in which a country's trade & industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state. 

 

The indispensible foundation of a free society is individual rights & capitalism is the only system that can uphold & protect individual rights. 

 

The Constitution was conceived in liberty with the purpose of protecting our God-given individual rights to life & liberty from which flows the pursuit of happiness & property rights.

 

Ayn Rand put it this way – “If one wishes to advocate a free society - that is, capitalism - one must realize that its indispensable foundation is the principle of individual rights. If one wishes to uphold individual rights, one must realize that capitalism is the only system that can uphold & protect them.”

 

As America’s first Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton implemented his vision where the South’s products were sent to the North as raw materials for incorporation into final products thereby linking & maximizing the synergy of both regions on the country.  Hamilton’s idea was that the agrarian interests of the South would be advanced by the Northern manufacturers & that both would be equally productive.   

 

In making a realty of his vision, Hamilton, supported by Robert Morris & Albert Gallatin, became the founder of the nation’s financial system.  In essence he gave us capitalism – a word that did not yet exist in his time.  See graph below.

 

It is the free enterprise capitalistic system from which the nation’s unsurpassed wealth & standard of living are derived.

 

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Now I am painfully aware of how far America has departed from my vision of its capabilities.  Instead of having a year, or better yet two years, of living expenses for a rainy day to weather a financial storm, 40% of Americans can’t afford a $58.74 emergency expense in 1970 dollars.  This lack of personal responsibility precludes a government dependent person from seeing the benefits of limited government & free enterprise.  It does not even consider the loss of liberty we are endangered with.

 

We descended to this point by government schools providing poor educations & then the hostile anti-American media telling the poorly educated people what the news is & they believe it with no critical thinking whatsoever.

 

And of course none of this poor education devotes any teaching to the meaning of the Constitution including the Originalist view that the Constitution should remain the same until it is properly changed by Amendment.  Georgetown Professor Randy Barnett recently explained to Mark Levin that the Constitution is not the law that governs us, it is the law that governs those who govern us.  These temporary politicians should not be able to change the meaning of the law that governs them without going through the Amendment process any more than you & I can change the laws that they make that govern us without going through the legislative process.

 

But our Constitution is not being amended for some other vision of the country – rather, it is being trashed right before our eyes.  NJ’s Governor Murphy is not the only elected representative whose pay grade is below understanding or considering the Constitution.  In addition to violating all the other sections of the Constitution delineated above Governors Cuomo (NY) & Newsome (CA) have also violated the Compact Clause (Article I, Section 10, Clause 3) when they entered into agreements with governors of their respective neighboring states to end the lockdowns previously ordered by these very same governors.

 

The money supply has expanded more in the past few weeks than any time other than right after the Revolutionary War.  Money has flowed like water & the disincentives to work like providing $600 per week extra unemployment compensation has resulted in people making more to stay home than to work.  States like California, New York, New Jersey, & Illinois are calling for federal bailouts that have nothing to do with Covid-19 & everything to do with mismanaged & underfunded state government pension plans.  And the claims that all this is being financed by near zero interest rates once again ignores the need of senior citizens to draw interest income meaning that seniors are subsidizing the government spending spree.

 

All of the financial costs listed throughout this post are very expensive – the government’s approach & response to the Covid-19 pandemic has ruined our economy & people’s lives for years to come.  But it is the loss of liberty resulting from the lockdown of the American society in response to the Covid-19 pandemic that is much too high – a price we can’t afford. 

The Purpose Of Flattening The Covid-19 Curve

click on graphic to enlarge

 

The above bell shaped curve on the left is the one the federal government's medical experts have been talking about flattening ever since the Wuhan coronavirus started infecting Americans with Covid-19.  The central idea of flattening this curve is for the curve's peak to fall below the healthcare system's capacity as shown by the bell shaped curve on the right & the horizontal line directly above this curve's peak. 

 

In accordance with the government's medical expert's theory, the curve's peak, representing the maximum number of patients under treatment @ any one time, must fall below the healthcare system's capacity to handle these patients so that the healthcare system's capacity is not overwhelmed, meaning not just shortages & rationing of ICU beds & ventilators but also the medical personnel themselves – i.e., doctors & nurses.  The government's theory is that the longer the society practices social distancing through shutting down society, other than the parts of the economy deemed essential by government officials, with stay @ home orders the flatter the curve will be.  But this will only slow the spread of the virus - it will not stop it.  When the society is opened up again, no matter how slowly, the curve will start to rise again toward the healthcare system's capacity before the society & economy are shut down again with an ever increasing cost to both.  Until a vaccine or specific treatment for Covid-19 are developed &/or a large percentage of the population becomes immune to the infection this process will not end. 

 

Click here to hear Dr. David Price, a critical care pulmonologist (respiratory physician) currently caring exclusively for Covid-19 patients in NYC @ Weill Cornell Hospital share his experience in treating this disease.  In the last half of the video Dr. Price answers questions.  The video has had over 1.3 million views & was sent to me by a very dear friend.

 

Click here to watch the Surgeon General, Vice Admiral Jerome Adams, show how to make a face mask from simple home supplies.  Whether you believe in wearing a mask or not - wearing a mask makes it harder to touch your face with your hands which Dr. Price explained is especially important when you are out in public touching things that could be contaminated with the Wuhan coronavirus.  Hands to face is thought to be the principal way people contract Covid-19.

 

Next is a checklist from a typical local government regarding protecting yourself from the Wuhan coronavirus.

 

How to protect yourself. Wash hands often with soap and water for 20 seconds. Avoid touching eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands. Avoid close contact with people who are sick. Clean and disinfect things you touch often. Cough or sneeze into a tissue and put tissue in trash. If possible, stay home when you feel sick.

My personal physician, & charter member subscriber to this blog, told me decades ago the 5 keys to good health are: 1) get a good night's sleep, 2) eat a nutritious diet, 3) get physical exercise, 4) get mental stimulation, & 5) avoid stress.

 

The above medical keys to good health are not far removed in principle from my mechanic's list for maintaining a car's trouble free service: regularly change the oil & air filter & lubricate where needed.

 

Over the last three to five weeks all of us have practiced @ least some of the above human points with virtually all of us following social distancing separations of being @ least 6 feet away from other human beings when out in public.  The government's theory is that social distancing buys us time so that the healthcare system's capacity is not exceeded – whether in the first wave of the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus or subsequent waves. 

 

The next post will analyze whether or not the cost of this purchase of time is too high.

 

The Passing Of Dr. Tom Coburn

This past Saturday Dr. Tom Coburn died @ the age of 72 from prostate cancer.  Senator Coburn was one of the most financially responsible Members of Congress ever to serve in Washington – most famously using common sense to question funding the bridge to nowhere from Ketchikan, Alaska to the Island of Gravina that led to a sweeping earmark ban in Congress.

 

Please click on Senator Tom Coburn's Farewell Address to see my tribute to Dr. Coburn when he retired from the Senate.