Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn of Texas are pushing a invoice that may make the federal authorities reimburse Texas for its border safety prices throughout Joe Biden’s presidency.
Although Cruz and Cornyn each have splashy press releases about it, and although Rep. Chip Roy of Texas is sponsoring the companion invoice within the Home, neither the Home nor Senate model has any textual content. However, in fact, there is a breathless Fox Information piece about it.
If we take the press push at its face, the invoice would reimburse Texas for border spending from Jan. 20, 2021, onward, and any funds left over on the finish of the Trump administration would go towards paying down the nationwide debt. Since we are able to’t really learn the invoice, it isn’t clear whether or not Texas continues to get reimbursed even now or if it solely covers these prices from when Texas was struggling beneath Biden’s reign of terror.
Even with out having the ability to learn the complete invoice, it’s clear that it serves two functions, neither of which has something to do with border safety.
First, it permits Republicans to maintain up the drumbeat that the Biden years had been such a catastrophic failure that by some means states nonetheless bear the ailing results. And second, it permits Texas to get in on the money seize. It’s fairly clear that the Trump administration has no ceiling on how a lot cash it’ll spend on its violent immigration crackdown.
That is particularly wealthy coming from Texas, the state that spent the Biden period arguing to courts that, regardless of immigration being wholly a federal concern, the state had the authority to erect wire buoy obstacles. And the state spent very handsomely on these obstacles, throwing a cool $1 million at “experts” throughout litigation. Are federal taxpayers now on the hook for that as properly?
Whereas $1 million could also be nothing however spare change to the Trump administration as of late, it underpins the most important challenge with this invoice: How does the federal authorities determine whether or not the cash spent by Texas was applicable? Or is it simply that any dime spent on the border by Texas from 2021 by way of 2025 is refundable it doesn’t matter what?
Throughout President Donald Trump’s first time period, Texas spent within the excessive 9 figures yearly, so does it get reimbursed primarily based on that spending?
You’d assume that none of this could be mandatory, given how Mexico was going to pay for the wall. However even Texas Gov. Greg Abbott knew that was a lie, which is why he’s spending billions of state cash to construct a wall as a substitute. Or perhaps he was going to crowdfund it?
Cruz and Cronyn are craven, however they’re not silly. It’s a wonderful time to attempt to faucet the federal coffers by demanding cash to make life much more depressing for immigrants. So why shouldn’t Texas get some?
