Texas Border Business
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) yesterday appeared on Fox Business’ ‘Mornings with Maria’ to discuss Texas’ repealed mask mandate, the need to re-open schools across the country, the Democrats’ $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill, and the crisis at our southern border. Highlights of his interview are below.
On Gov. Greg Abbott (R-Texas) ending Texas’ statewide mask mandate, Sen. Cruz said:
“I think it’s great news. I think Texans are ready to get back to work. Texans are eager to get back to work. I think as we look across the country, the lockdowns have proven to be a serious mistake. And then they hurt millions of people. They destroyed lives. They destroyed small businesses. And people are ready to get to work. We can be smart, we can be safe, we can practice social distancing. We’ve taken reasonable, commonsense steps to slow the spread of the virus. But the answer isn’t to destroy millions of jobs.”
On the continued school closures across the country, Sen. Cruz said:
“The kids that are being hurt the most by Democrats shutting down schools are low income kids, they’re African-American kids and Hispanic kids. The data are showing that kids – many kids are six months or a year behind, and that educational harm will be with the rest of their lives. It is wrong. You know, the Democrats like to say, ‘follow the science.’ They’re not following the science. The CDC says [to] send kids back to school. It’s safe to send kids back to school. And yet, you’ve got a whole lot of Democratic politicians that care about that money from the teachers’ union bosses more than they care about the kids. Only 40 percent of school children in America right now are in person in class, five days a week. That is an outrage. And when you look at Democrats who don’t seem to care about these kids that are being abandoned. I will say there’s a reason Gavin Newsom is unhappy, because every year we see thousands and thousands of Californians fleeing California and coming to Texas. And the fact that we’re open for business and they’re shut down is only going to accelerate that phenomenon.”
“Frankly, it’s not serving the teachers. There are teachers all across this country who are incredibly honorable, who love their kids, who went into teaching because they want to make a difference. But their union bosses have decided the best of all outcomes is to keep getting paid and not have to go into work. Well, no, that’s not in the interest of the kids who are going to school, and to see the Democrats – they literally the head of the CDC got up and said kids need to go to school. The science is clear. Kids need to be in school. And the Biden White House walked that back, said, ‘No, no, no, no. That was not in any official capacity.’ […] Democrats view on the science, unfortunately, is very convenient, that they call it science if it agrees with their partisan agenda and if it doesn’t agree with their partisan agenda, never mind.”
On House Democrats’ wasteful COVID relief bill, Sen. Cruz said:
“This bill – nine percent of the bill is focused on health care needs and COVID. So, 91 percent of the bill is not about fighting the pandemic. The money for schools – a lot of the money for schools in that bill is four years in the future. It’s not even for right now. We have a crisis now. But what this bill is, is a liberal wish list. It’s every priority the Democrats have of paying off their political cronies. […] And I get that their priority is bring home the bacon and buy votes. But this is irresponsible and it’s wrong. And it’s important to note, in the last year we passed five bipartisan COVID relief bills. Republicans are eager to work together on getting vaccines out on fighting the virus, on getting people back to work, on helping small businesses. And we’ve demonstrated we’ll roll up our sleeves and work with Democrats. Joe Biden and the Democrats have said to Republicans, ‘Go jump in a lake.’ They don’t want to work with us. They don’t want to talk with us. They are going to try to ram through a partisan list completely unrelated to the pandemic because they got power and they don’t want to waste the power. And I think that’s really cynical and it’s unfortunate.”
“There’s all sorts of garbage buried here that people will find out weeks or months from now. 1.9 billion dollars is a ton of money. And so the plan – what Chuck Schumer wants to do is bring it up in the Senate tomorrow. Under the Budget Act, there are unlimited amendments. I think it is likely we will be there very, very late tomorrow, way into the early hours of the morning. And I got to tell you, Republicans are united. I think there’s a good chance you will see no Republicans supporting this, because this is not – it’s not a good faith attempt at either defeating the virus or at getting the economy moving it. It is a partisan wish list. A lot of Republicans, we’re spending a lot of time discussing strategy about how to fight it. But at the end of the day, Schumer and Pelosi and Biden are just wanting to jam it through.”
On the Biden administration refusing to address the crisis at our southern border, Sen. Cruz said:
“There is a crisis at the border and it is a human tragedy. I have spent a lot of time at the border of our 2,000 mile border. Twelve hundred of those miles are in the state of Texas. I’ve spent a lot of time with the men and women of the Border Patrol who are heroes, who risk their life to keep this country safe. And we are seeing illegal crossings rising. We are seeing unaccompanied kids – those numbers go up dramatically and that’s directly connected to catch-and-release, which the Biden administration has moved back to and the promises of amnesty. […]What Joe Biden is doing – amnesty, catch-and-release, and encouraging illegal immigration – is not compassionate. It kills people. […] For Democrats, it’s all about politics. And it seems to me that we ought to focus on doing our jobs, keeping people safe, keeping kids out of cages in the way you do that is ending the policies that encourage kids to be given over to human traffickers. That’s not what the Biden administration is doing.”
 yesterday appeared on Fox Business’ ‘Mornings with Maria’ to discuss Texas’ repealed mask mandate, the need to re-open schools across the country, the Democrats’ $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill){kind=link}