They clearly tell you what theyre going to do. But families can more often and better than the government decide what they want in their insurance policy than the government can decide what they want in their insurancepologies. The stacks of letters that m evy member of my staff got, about people who dont understand why they need policies that cover a half a dozen things had a they couldnt ever possibly use and who dont understand why now those policies are so expensive that they can no longer afford to have the policy that they had, who dont understand why cutting medicare to start a new Government Program makes sense because, mr. President , it didnt make sense and it doesnt make sense to cut a program that clearly is facing challenges as our society gets older to cut funding for that program by 600 billion or 700 billion over ten years so you could start a new program that the costs are clearly going to be so much more than anybody anticipated. Im pleased to join my friends today whove been here for several minutes now, the better part of this last hour, talking about the challenges we face. And we know that there are better solutions. More competition would have been one of those solutions. Buying across state lines would have been one of those solutions. Associated health plans where you could take your Small Business or an individual, find some group to become part of, and the government could have made that easier instead of making it illegal and impossible. More transparency by providers. Id like to know what hospitals and providers charge and what they are results are. And they know. Theres no reason that that couldnt be made available. In fact, one of the better provisions in the Affordable Care act says the government is supposed to do that but of all the things the government could have done, thats something that the government hasnt yet found time to do. Medical Liability Reform there were a double handful and maybe even just a single handful of things we could have done to say, lets try these things and see if they dont make the system work better and see what lesson we learn by injecting these two or three or four or five things into a Health Care System that was the best system in the world; it just didnt have the amount of competition, transparency, and access it needed to have. And so, mr. President , i would continue to hope that well go move forward, learn the hardlearned lessons of the implementation of this plan, and go back and find what was working so well and figure out what we need to do to make that work even better. And i would yield the floor. Mr. Cornyn mr. President . The presiding officer the senior senator from texas. Mr. Cornyn mr. President , yesterday i came to the floor and spoke about president obamas reluctance to see reluctance to see first hand the ongoing and growing humanitarian crisis occurring on the u. S. Mexican border. And said i came to the floor to renew that call, as other elected officials from both sides of the aisle have done, to please come to the border where this humanitarian crisis is unfolding. I know because its reported the president will be in texas for two days starting tomorrow. Hell be there wednesday on the one hand thursday on hell be therence with did i antherence n a fundraising trip. Please come see it request your pleas come see it with your own eyes. Talk to the Border Patrol. Learn from not only the migrants who have traversed mexico at the rick of their own at the risk of their own lives, but find out what we need to do to deal with the ongoing crisis and what we need to do to solve it. And i urged him to do so not as a political statement but so he can witness what is a very sad and tragic in many ways tragic situation and one that could have been mitigated, if not prevented, a situation that is unfortunately a humanitarian crisis, which his policies and their perception about his commitment to enforce our laws has helped create. Given the white houses recent announcement that the president refuses to visit the Rio Grande Valley this week, it unfortunately appears that my request here again today will fall on deaf ears. And, therefore, it suggests to the American People that either the president doesnt really understand this border crisis or he simply doesnt care. Now, to give thes president a fair shake, ive been with the president after the tragic shootings at fort hood in 2009 in this last year. I have are a been with the president at the Memorial Service in west, where First Responders were tragically killed as a result of an explosion. Why he is so stubborn and hardheaded that he refuses to visit the rio grande value i will and witness this ongoing humanitarian crisis with his own eyes really is mystifying. Well, the governor perry has been doing what ive been doing and urging the president to visit the border, and he happened to share with the media governor perry, that is last night a white house letter inviting him to an immigration round table in dallas. Well, this crisis is unfolding on the border, not in dallas, and so i brought with me a map of texas so the president can see this for himself. See, this is dallas. This is where the crisis is unfolding in the Rio Grande Valley. Thats about 500 miles away. Thankfully, the president doesnt have to fly commercial. He flies in air force one. My guess is it probably would take him an hour out of his scheduled activities in texas to go to the border and maybe another hour on the ground to talk to the Border Patrol, as i did last week, and to see these children jammed in detention facilities and Border Patrol detention spaces and to talk to some of them, as i did in my visit last week. I think it would be helpful to the president. I think one of the biggest problems that president s have is they end up livings i benefitina bubble and they end up living in a bubble and they only get information thats been filter filtered. Sometimes president s dont understand, they are tonedeaf to the problems that confront the country. And thats why it would be in the best interest of my constituents in texas. These whthats why it would be e best interest of these children that are part of this humanitarian crisis. Thats why it wab a contribution toward a solution to this crisis if the president would simply come 500 miles from dallas, texas, where he invited governor perry to a round table, down to the Rio Grande Valley. Now, as i said, the president s trip to texas will focus on fundraising, and i understand that. But the problem is, his policies have had a disproportionate impact on my constituent who live along the u. S. Mexican border. In fact, it is my recollection, mr. President , that the president of the United States is not has not once visited the Rio Grande Valley where a majority of this ongoing crisis is taking place. You know, he did come to el paso back in 2011, and when people suggested that we had a problem with security at the border, he he ridiculed them by saying, well, maybe we ought to buy a moat along the border. Thats actually insulting coming from a person whos never actually been to the border, particularly the Rio Grande Valley, where a majority of these children are crossing. And indeed over time, whats happened is much of the illegal immigration that comes across the border has migrated from nogales in arizona to the Rio Grande Valley. And if you you cant see it on this map, but if you understand the geography here, most of these children are coming from Central America, and the shortest distance from guatemala and honduras to the United States is through the rys through the rio grande value live texas. This is also a place where the president ought to go visit, a location where ive been in Brooks County. This is where the falfurious checkpoint is located. They found many dead bodies of immigrants who died from exposure near the checkpoint in falfurious. Coyotes will bring people across the border, put them in stash houses. What will then happen is the could iicouldcoyotesor smugglern trucks up the highway. Theyll say, get out of the truck. Here is a jug full of water, a gallon gorks a milk jug full of water. Well see you on the north side of the checkpoint. And so dozens, if not hundreds, if not thousands of immigrants over time walk try to walk, some in the 100degreeplus texas weather around this checkpoint and some simply dont make t and i it. And if you understand where they come from, some from as far away as Central America, some are already ill from exposure and for many of them, their last steps are there in Brooks County trying to walk around this checkpoint in falfurious. I think the president would benefit from doing what ive done and visitin visiting the rs in Brooks County and learning more about the problem and how we might effect a solution. But if you refuse to go out of stubborn pride or whatever the reasoning is, then youre sumly going to be ignorant of what are the best ways we could Work Together to solve this underlying problem. In recent weeks, mr. President , ive shared only a few of the many horrific stories regarding the dangerous journey that countless numbers of children take to get to the United States from Central America. They call the train that many of them ride in these corridors controlled by the cartels, that treat human beings like a commodity like drugs, guns they treat human beings like a commodity that makes money for them, up through these corridors ton the back of a train system they call the beast. There is a chilling book written by a salvadoran journalist Oscar Martinez about the beast. And in it you find out that six out of ten, maybe more, women who come umalon come up along tn system known as the beast are sexually assaulted. Migrants are routinely held for ransom by the gangs and many of them simply dont make it. I shudder to think how many of the young children, some as old as five, never make it to the border because they die in the process. Thats not thats not humanitarian. Thats not friendly. Thats cruel. And we ought to be telling the truth about this horrific journey and discouraging parents from sending their children from Central America up through mexico on the back of the beast only to die in the process or to be assaulted, to be kidnapped, or horribly injured and maimed. Well, this is one of the many reasons i didnt think the president would benefit from a visit why i think the president would benefit from a visit. It is hard to ignore the facts, especially when you see them with your own eyes and you get a chance to talk to our hardworking, professional Border Patrol that do an incredible job with limited resources. But part of the problem, when you have 52,000 children coming across the southwestern border just at th at the rio grande ser since october, 39,000 women with minor children detained at the south in the rio grande sector, unless you go and at that talk to the Border Patrol and learn about this with your own ears and eyes, you may not realize that drug interdictions are depressed because our Border Patrol is basically trying to change diapers and deal with the humanitarian crisis and isnt available because theyre overwhelmed by people. Theyre unable to do one of their principal jobs, which is to interdict illegal drug importations into the United States. So i hope the president will reconsider. Hes not going to texas until tomorrow. My understanding is hell be there two days, and certainly he has an hour or two hours out of his schedule that he can dedicate to seeing the crisis for himself and learning more about it and then coming back and working with us to try to stop it. Of course we all feel nothing but sympathy for the children and families who sacrificed their lives trying to make it to the United States but failed because of the impression that our immigration laws simply will not be enforced. Many of my colleagues have come to the floor and said, well, if we would just pass the comprehensive immigration bill that the Senate Passed last year, that would do it. Well, i would say with all respect, thats demonstrably false, because even the president , secretary johnson of the department of Homeland Security have conceded that none of these children would be eligible under the president s deferred action executive order. None of them would be eligible for entry to stay in the United States. So passing that law would have nothing to do with this current crisis. Between president obamas failure to enforce our immigration laws and his evershifting explanations, its no wonder hes lost credibility on this issue. Many americans simply dont have confidence that the president is willing to faithfully execute the laws of the United States, including our immigration laws. No wonder Speaker Boehner and so many of our house colleagues have gotten so frustrated, theyve decided maybe the only alternative is to take the president to court. Well, we know the president has had a pretty bad couple of weeks when it comes to overreach, and hes been rebuked several times recently for unconstitutional acts like trying to determine when the senate is in recess and evade the confirmation process here. But if the president wants to know why we havent been able to pass immigration reform, all he has to do is look in the mirror. All he has to do is look at his own policies which are created in an enormous amount of distrust between not only congress and the executive branch, but in his agencies that they will actually do what theyre supposed to do, like the department of Homeland Security, the immigrations and customs enforcement, i. C. E. , and the other components of the department of Homeland Security. Given all the differing narratives coming out of the white house concerning this surge of unaccompanied minors, its time for the president to directly address the problem. Now i know the president has sent over today a 3. 7 billion request for more money. And i have no doubt that some pieces of it are justified. For example, we need enhanced detention facilities. We need more Immigration Judges and others, other people as part of that process so hearings can be conducted on a timely basis and a legal determination made according to existing law whether people can stay or whether they have to be returned to their country of origin. But visiting the border is just one in a series of steps that the president could take to regain some of his own credibility but also to help address the, this crisis. This is not just a humanitarian crisis. This is also a National Security crisis, as recently testified to by the head of southern command, general kelly, a marine general who is head of that combatant command. He is in charge of that area of the globe from mexico south, known as southern command. And he says because of inadequate resources and equipment and manpower to deal with the drug cartels moving Illegal Drugs from south america up to north america, the United States, 75 of the time general kelly said, they simply have to sit and watch because they dont have the resources. Well, i would hope that some of the money thats included in this 3. 7 billion request would be dedicated to make sure that general kelly and our Law Enforcement agencies have the resources and equipment necessary to stop the drug cartels moving drugs from south america through Central America and up through mexico. And as general kelly said, you have this intersection of criminal conduct and terrorism that sometimes takes place in organizations like hezbollah, for example, that established a presence in south america historically and it doesnt take a Rocket Scientist to figure out this vulnerability can be exploited by other people and not just the drug cartels. And the question remains if you have enough money can you make it into the United States . Unfortunately i think we have to answer that question in the affirmative. Last year alone 414,000 people were detained on our southwestern border, from 100 different countries. 100 different countries. So this just isnt about people who have no hope and no opportunity trying to come to the United States from mexico and trying to get a job. This is about uncontrolled immigration through our southwestern border from all over the world. Admittedly most of them come from mexico and Central America, but this is a vulnerability when people can come from pakistan, they can come from afghanistan, they can even come from iran, countries with special interests. Countries that are state sponsors of international terrorism. So this is worthy of the president s attention and worthy of a president ial visit. And i hope he will change his mind and do that. I think president obama needs a wakeup call. He needs to realize that the situation along the border is not as rosy as perhaps he is under the impression that it is. And only by visiting the border and visiting firsthand and seeing with his own eyes and listening with his own ears to the professionals working there so hard they are simpl