Congressman Tom Cole appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe Thursday to discuss the partial government shutdown impasse over border security funding. Cole is a member of the House Appropriations and Budget Committee and will be involved with any legislation which might end the shutdown.
Cole feels that instead of keeping the focus exclusively on funding a border wall, a deal could be made where all sides get something they want.
“I think you can either look at this as a fight to be won, which is, I think, where we’re at right now and that’s a mistake, or a problem to be solved. And to solve this problem in my view, you’ve got to make it, frankly, a little bit bigger than it is right now, so there’s not obvious winners and losers. Personally, I would add DACA to the list of things that this group ought to discuss. I would also add that in the next few months, we’ve got to deal with both the debt ceiling, and we’ve got to set the set the spending levels for government or we’ll go through a ten percent sequester related cut that no Republican wants for defense and no Democrat wants for domestic programs. So, make it bigger, then deal with multiple issues that you’re going to have to deal with anyway. And then I think everybody can walk away. The President gets something on border security. There’s a bi-partisan consensus for DACA reform. We all know that we don’t want to go through sequester and have unnecessary, and frankly, devastating cuts, and if you don’t deal with the debt ceiling, you’re going to have an economic crisis. So, make it big enough that everybody’s got something to win when they walk away. And I think that’s the road forward,” Cole told MSNBC.
Cole also warns against using emergency powers to get the wall built or add enhanced security measures along the border.
“It’s not the best use of presidential power, in my opinion. Again make the problem, have it where somebody can win, somebody can lose. What we’re doing if we do that is basically punting the responsibility of Congress and the President into the courts and say we can’t solve this, so you solve it. That’s just, I don’t think that’s the best way forward. I’d rather get to a deal than continue the fight.”
You can watch the complete MSNBC interview at this link.
Of course you would Mr. Cole – you are another amnesty shill in Congress. DACA is unconstitutional. Is it your job to codify illegal activity? You don’t speak for me on DACA or the wall. The U.S. Chamber is probably the biggest oppose of the wall. The cost to process DACA applications alone has been $315 million since 2015.Keeping “dreamers” would cost taxpayers 26 BILLION over the next 1 years. Do you work for US or illegals?
“oppose” and “10 years”. correction of typos!
Tom’s basically a good guy, but he’s been part of the in-crowd too long. You’d rather “get to a deal,” Tom? Sure, so would I. You have to have people on the other side who want to get to a deal, too. So go convince Nancy and Chuck on the benefits of compromise and maybe you can solve this whole thing. I’m sure you can do it.