Senator John Cornyn talks border, debt ceiling, Ukraine and China

HOUSTON - The Lone Star State's Senior United States Senator is shouldering what many see as the "Herculean" challenge of forging limited, bipartisan consensus as a means of easing the multifaceted border crisis plaguing Texas and the entire country.

"I think that's why I got elected, to take on tough tasks and see if we can find some common ground," Sen. John Cornyn said. "The sad fact is though, that given the President's open border policy and what's been happening at the border, it's made it much harder to find that common ground, but I think it all starts with border security."

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"I visited with some of our Texas Congressmen and asked them to please send us a border security bill as soon as you can, and then we can begin looking here in the Senate for building a bi-partisan consensus to get us to 60 votes, which as a practical matter is the only way we can get anything through the Senate and then hopefully to the President," he continued. "I agree, it's an uphill task, but it all starts with border security."

Cornyn insists the price of continued Congressional in-action and stalemate will be painful.

"The border is more complex than I think a lot of people acknowledge, because you have a certain number of people who are coming to the border, economic migrants and the like, and you have some people who are claiming asylum, and really it's our asylum system along with 'catch and release' policies of the administration that continue to encourage more and more people to come," Cornyn said. "Even though those who eventually appear in front of an immigration judge, only about ten percent of them qualify. The problem is many of the rest just sort of melt into the great American landscape." 

"I think if we could start with fixing the broken asylum system that would be a good start," he continued. "We see the drugs that have taken the lives of 108,000 Americans coming across that border and I suspect many of those so-called 'got aways' are drug mules running drugs into the interior of the United States."

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As for the looming battle over the debt ceiling, Cornyn says the $31 trillion in red ink already weighing down our government's books should trigger a nationwide call for fiscal restraint.

"As a result of COVID, we saw a huge increase in federal spending on a bipartisan basis, of course, this was an emergency of public health and an economic emergency, and we responded accordingly," Cornyn said. "But in the last two years the administration and Democrats in the Senate and the House have spent another $3 trillion, so the position that the President is taking that he won't negotiate is simply unsustainable, and it's irresponsible."

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On the issue of aid for Ukraine, Cornyn fully supports the provision of advanced American weaponry including the M1 Abrams battle tank.

"We need to continue to help them because Mr. Putin is not going to stop," Cornyn said. "If there was a pause in the fighting or if there was a temporary peace, he would use that to re-set and replenish his munitions and continue his march across Europe."

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As for the economic and geopolitical threat posed by China, Cornyn is calling on the nation to escalate preemptive measures as a security imperative.

"We need to win the next war by preventing the next war and the only way we do that is by deterrence and by strength, as Ronald Reagan said 'peace through strength' and frankly we are not ready," he concluded.