Rep. Andy Barr: Democrats Have Failed on the Economy, Crime, and the Border
(CNSNews.com) - Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.) on Sunday predicted that Republicans will win the upcoming midterm elections by a “landslide” because “Joe Biden has done such a poor job and congressional Democrats have failed the American people on the economy, crime, and the border.”
“We have a positive agenda. We have a commitment to America, and we're going to get back to basics,” Barr told NBC’s “Meet the Press” when asked what the Republican plan is to deal with inflation other than not supporting Biden’s policies.
“Republicans are going to win landslide elections not just because Joe Biden has done such a poor job and congressional Democrats have failed the American people on the economy, crime and the border, but because we have a positive agenda to secure the border, to get back to basics, to stop the flow of drugs into our communities, to prevent people on the terror watch list from coming across the southern border, and to restore the Remain in Mexico policy that this administration just reversed, to finish a border wall infrastructure and technology and resource Border Patrol,” he said.
“You know, the Democrats just passed a bill that would increase the workforce at the IRS by 87,000 people to come after law-abiding American small business owners and harass them. We don't need more IRS agents. We need more Border Patrol agents, and we have a commonsense plan to reduce the cost of living, to lower the cost at the pump,” the congressman said.
“We want to restore American energy independence. We're going to end these policies that prevent -- that prevent us from being energy independent. We're going to stop the politicization of the financing of energy, and we are going to produce more energy to reduce our dependence on foreign sources of energy and also speculative, unreliable sources of energy that this administration is so obsessed about,” Barr said.
Host Chuck Todd asked if Republicans are concerned that with gas prices going down, and threats to democracy becoming a top issue to voters, whether the GOP “all of a sudden” don’t have the right message to win the midterm elections.
“Well, Chuck, at the beginning of the program you made the important point that the American people are angry and anxious, and there's a reason why the American people are angry and anxious, and that’s because they are worse off under the policies of congressional Democrats and Joe Biden,” Barr said.
“Yes, they are concerned about our country and the future of our country because we're in a recession, because we've had two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth despite what the White House wants to do in redefining that term. Real wages are down. Credit card debt is up because people cannot afford this increased cost of living,” he said.
“We are experiencing the highest inflation, Chuck, in 40 years. The average American household is suffering under $5,000 reduced purchasing power. They're paying more for virtually everything. Gas prices have doubled. There's an energy crisis in this country because this president has waged a war on energy in this country,” the congressman said.
“We are no longer energy independent. In fact, we've gone from energy dominant to energy desperate in just a year and a half's time, and we are experiencing a crime wave -- 15% increase in homicides because of the defund police movement, and we have no operational control over the southern border, and in my home state of Kentucky, we are experiencing the worst fentanyl overdose crisis in our country,” Barr said.
“No, Kentucky is not on the southern border, but we are a border state because our citizens are dying because this administration and this leadership in the Democrat-controlled Congress refuses to follow the law and secure our border, and people are dying because of this. That's why the American people are anxious and angry in this country and why they want to change,” he said.
“Let me ask you about the IRS talking point because I just don't get it because a lot of Republicans have talked about dealing with waste, fraud and abuse. The current head of the IRS, who was a Trump appointee, said he didn't have enough people to essentially -- that the biggest problem we have is people don't pay the taxes that they're supposed to pay. If you're upset about extra IRS agents, stop cheating on your taxes, Congressman, and I'm not saying you personally, but I mean, I'm talking about in general,” Todd asked.
“Right, Chuck. Look, everybody believes that people should pay their taxes, but the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office looking at this legislation, this reconciliation bill, this inflation expansion act, says that $20 billion of these audits are going to come at the expense of low and middle-income Americans,” Barr said.
“When Joe Biden and his campaign promised the American people that, “Oh, taxes were not going to go up for people earning less than $400,000,” that was a lie. This bill is going to come at the expense of the American people,” the congressman said.
“Raising taxes on energy producers, job creators and people trying to save for retirement in the middle of a recession, I don't know for the life of me why they think that's a winning strategy in a situation where Americans can't afford gas, they can't afford groceries. Heck, moms can't even get baby formula right now,” he said.
“So, the economy is not serving the Democrats well, and only in Joe Biden's America, only in Joe Biden's America, is the solution to an inflation-induced -- spending-induced inflation crisis more spending. The way to fix inflation is to lower taxes, to repair our supply chains and to produce more energy to lower prices. That's the solution, and that's the Republican solution,” Barr added.
Texas Has 'Bused Over 7,000 Migrants to Our Nation's Capital Since April'
A bus transporting illegal immigrants leaves a temporary holding facility in Clint, Texas. (Photo by PAUL RATJE/AFP via Getty Images)
(CNSNews.com) - Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says his state has sent “over 7,000 migrants to our nation's capital since April and over 900 migrants to New York City since August 5.”
In the August 19 press release, Abbott said the bus transportation “is providing much-needed relief to our overwhelmed border communities.”
“In the United States, there is a legal pathway that people can pursue to become a legal immigrant into the country," Governor Abbott said. "The problem is that President Biden is not enforcing what that standard is. When the rule of law is abandoned, it leads to the chaos that we’re seeing.”
Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a Texas Republican, was asked about Abbott’s “stunt” on Sunday.
He told CNN’s “State of the Union” with Jake Tapper that Abbott is “acting out of desperation” and that he supports the governor’s actions:
“Well, look, what he's doing is, he's sending a message. That -- there's no secret there, right? This isn't a policy move,” Crenshaw said:
“This is -- this is a move of desperation to get someone to pay attention to what we're dealing with in Texas, which is why I support it.”
New York and Washington are sanctuary cities, which means illegal immigrants are protected from deportation.
But Crenshaw said given the huge influx, basically, everyone is crossing our border has the same likelihood of being allowed to stay:
“There's millions upon -- there's almost two million, I think, we're at, at apprehensions just this year. That's an unprecedented number. A huge amount of those will stay in the country, because the backlogs in our system are so severe that that's going to happen anyway.
“And when we're talking about the New York and D.C. busing, we're talking about a few thousand immigrants. That's what we deal with on a daily basis in South Texas.
“So, look, what he's doing, I think, is out of desperation. And it's highly necessary, because somebody has to solve this problem. This is an infringement on our sovereignty. It's an infringement on our rule of law.
“And you know what? It's unfair and it's immoral to the millions upon millions of good, law-abiding immigrants or asylum seekers around the world that have no chance of getting into our system because of the backlog that people are creating because they're geographically close to the United States and they can just walk across. It's not fair.”
Gov. Abbott says it’s “disingenuous” for New York City officials to criticize his “ship-them-to-New-York” effort.
“It’s disingenuous, because before I began busing migrants up to New York, President Biden was flying planeloads of these migrants into the city,” Governor Abbott said. “What Texas is doing is just a fraction of what President Biden was doing, but you never heard them complain before.”
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