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Texas Republicans, Democrats point fingers at each other over shutdown

The rift between Democrats and Republicans is not limited to party leaders in Congress. Congressional Republicans and Democrats from Texas blame each other for the longest shutdown in American history.

TYLER, Texas — The 25-day long partial federal shutdown is a representation of the deeper conflict between Democrats and Republicans.

CBS19 reached out to House representatives from both parties for their solutions on ending the shutdown.

The offices of Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-TX) and Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) sent statements to CBS19, saying there is no end in sight to the nearly month-long standoff.

Rep Gohmert sent the following statement:

President Trump is taking a courageous and necessary stand by insisting on border security, and he needs to be able to count on Republicans in Congress to stand by him until Democrats end their obstruction.

Two years ago, the American people sent a clear and resounding message to Washington: fix our broken immigration system, and fix it now.

Demonstrating once again that he’s nothing like typical establishment politicians, President Trump has taken that responsibility seriously by putting his foot down for the border wall that he promised on the campaign trail.

Illegal immigration has become a serious humanitarian and national security crisis, and as immigration enforcement professionals have repeatedly affirmed, there is no effective solution to that crisis that doesn’t include a physical barrier along at least part of our southern border.

When Congress passed a spending bill last year that, yet again, did not include funding for even a portion of the wall, President Trump made clear that he was not signing another spending bill after that one without the protection of a wall Americans desperately needs for protection. Yet, we now have Democrat leaders who previously voted for wall funding saying that there is no need for a border wall, and instead demanding a “virtual wall” utilizing technologies such as drones and TV cameras even though they didn’t make a peep when Obama’s Homeland Security Secretary declared that we didn’t need the billions appropriated for that very system. 

Many of these same people have themselves lived in homes with walls or fences, like the 10-foot wall that President Obama built around his Washington home. They make sure their homes are locked and secured at night, even though a skilled burglar could get around their locks or security systems. They don’t do that because they hate everyone outside their home; they do it, as the president memorably explained during his Oval Office address because they love the people on the inside. 

Democrats decided to play a game of chicken with President Trump, naively expecting him to follow the script written by conventional politicians and “mainstream” media’s self-appointed experts who care more about political consequences than doing what’s right for the country.

But Donald Trump has never been conventional, and he genuinely cares about achieving true border security. That much was certainly evident from his willingness to remain at his post while opponents of making America safe were away on Christmas vacation.  

Apart from visiting with troops in Iraq the day after Christmas, President Trump stayed at the White House over the holidays, canceling plans with his family so that he could be on standby in case the Democrats wanted to save American lives instead of playing politics. Not once over that two week period did Nancy Pelosi or Chuck Schumer reach out to accept the President’s outstretched hand or even indicate any desire to compromise in the least. Instead, Representative Pelosi vacationed in Hawaii while Minority Leader Schumer schemed for a way to blame the President for mayhem in America including lost lives caused by Democrat recalcitrance.

As soon as Representative Pelosi got back to Washington, she was appointed Speaker of the House and passed legislation that includes billions of dollars in aid for foreign countries. Yet she still refuses to offer more than a single dollar for even part of a wall that would protect America.

Instead, she demands a return to the failed strategies of the Obama years, when the federal government was more concerned with giving money to the largest funder of international terrorism than protecting Americans. If Pelosi and Schumer could just see their way clear to allowing President Trump to protect America with less than 4 percent of the cash they approved of President Obama giving to Ayatollah Khamenei and Iran, we could save American lives instead of mourning their loss. 

Meanwhile, the problem of illegal immigration continues to fester. Of the female children lured to the U.S., over one-third are sexually assaulted at least once on the journey through Mexico, with a significant number of the boys molested as well during the arduous trek. Some never make it to America alive. That is just one part of the human tragedy caused by luring people illegally into this country with lax border security. There was also enough fentanyl trafficked into the United States last year to kill every single American citizen.

In American jurisprudence, we developed a legal doctrine called “Attractive Nuisance.” If a person responsible for a piece of property has something like a swimming pool that attracts people onto the land, and there is no wall or fence to prevent them from coming in, the person responsible for that land is held legally liable for money damages if someone is harmed, for example by drowning. Isn’t it time to hold the Democrats who are keeping America’s borders unsecured at least politically liable for the lost lives that their lack of walls or fences is causing?

President Trump is doing everything in his power to address this crisis. But it is now up to the Democrat leaders in Congress to stop trying to politically bludgeon this President simply fulfill their oaths so we can finally secure the safety of our country. 

The President’s willingness to put his own political future on the line for the sake of the American people should inspire elected officials from both parties to do the same.  It remains to be seen whether the Democrats will ultimately compromise and allow the President to secure our border. He certainly should not have to wonder, however, whether the vast majority of Congressional Republicans will stand with him. We will.

The bird flu was a problem during the Obama years. But make no mistake, the loss of lives, damage, and destruction that Americans endure daily due to the lack of sufficient border walls and protection is a national emergency many times more severe than when President Obama declared a “National Emergency” over the bird flu in 2009.

President Trump is demonstrating political courage of the sort that is rarely seen in our capital, and his cause here in the D.C. swamp is thoroughly just.

Rep. Johnson offered her own statement:

In 25 days since President Trump shut the government down, 800,000 Americans have gone without receiving their paychecks, and 420,000 have worked without pay. Since Democrats were sworn into the majority in the House, we’ve passed multiple bills to reopen the government, fund our federal agencies, and put 800,000 federal employees back to work. These same measures were supported by the Republican leadership in the Senate before the shutdown began and were passed unanimously. Now, for reasons passing understanding, Mitch McConnell is blocking these bills from coming up for a vote, even though he knows they would overwhelmingly pass.

 The longer the president and his party allow this shutdown to drag on, the more harm the American people will be forced to endure. From a shortage of TSA agents present at airports to screen bags to fewer air traffic control agents on duty to ensure the safety of our air travel, the consequences of this shutdown can affect each one of us. Democrats want to reopen the government and are willing to implement smart and effective border security enhancements. We encourage the president to reopen the government and bring this government shutdown – the longest and most avoidable in history – to an end.

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