Houston Chronicle Editorial: Is Ted Cruz really talking sense at the border?

We offer for your consideration early in this election year a politician who would seem to be a paragon of border enlightenment, a veritable paladin of bipartisan collaboration. We make that assessment in response to words he delivered at a recent press conference in Laredo celebrating legislation designed to either construct or expand international bridges along the Rio Grande: “This is a win for Texas farmers and ranchers. This is a win for Texas small businesses and manufacturers. This is a win for jobs; this is thousands of jobs here in South Texas and all across Texas. This is also a win for national security. One of the things we’re seeing is we’re seeing more and more on-shoring and near-shoring of manufacturing coming from China — some of it coming back to the United States, some of it coming to Mexico.

Our close friend and ally in bringing that manufacturing back to North America is unequivocally good for U.S. national security, making us less dependent on China. “And, this is a win for the environment. Right now on any given day you can go south of the border and you can see a lot of 18-wheelers, sometimes extending four, five, six miles, sitting there for hours on end, spewing pollution into the air. That’s not good for the environment. It’s much better for the environment to have enough lanes open, enough bridges open so the freight and commerce can move quickly and expeditiously. That makes more sense all around. “So we’re here to celebrate a tremendous bipartisan victory, a victory for Texas. ..." Yes, we say. And again, yes! The impassioned deliverer of those remarks is likely to surprise you, dear reader. It’s our own junior U.S. senator. Yes, Ted Cruz, the Texas irritant who, during his dozen years in the Senate, has inspired bi-pervasive dislike and invective but otherwise is rarely associated with anything bipartisan. And