Pork hunter

Politics: Sen. Tom Coburn keeps up the lonely fight against congressional earmarks | Becky Perry

A $463.5 billion spending resolution passed the House by a 2-1 margin at the end of January, as Congress accelerated fiscal business while eyeing a Feb. 15 deadline to extend the federal budget or face a partial government shutdown.

But congressional crunch time did not faze Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who sent a letter notifying his fellow senators that he would object to any budget legislation that failed to meet his criteria of fiscal responsibility. "For too long, Congress has simply borrowed more and more money to pay for new spending," Coburn wrote to his colleagues on Feb. 5. "Americans want Congress to live within its means, using the same set of common sense rules and restraints they face every day."