A note about last night’s town hall in San Antonio. It was a great event, hosted by a great Pastor who opened up his church, filled with great Texans, but was briefly interrupted by a few loud voices who do not represent #Tx21 in the slightest. (1/x)
It was interrupted allegedly on the basis of my statement(s) on Israel. But that was just an excuse, because it was then continuously & purposefully interrupted on all topics raised… Border Security, Guns, and more. This is not new. And it is expected. (2/x)
For all who stayed the duration, we had a great talk about healthcare, guns, border security, spending, natl security, & myriad topics of interest to central Texans. There was agreement & disagreement, but minus the handful of antagonists, it was productive. (3/x)
On healthcare, we talked about how pharmaceutical companies shouldn’t game patents for profit, how PBM’s shouldn’t add costs, & ways we are looking to drive down prices (e.g. insulin)… while, yes, promoting the very profit-motivated innovation that produces great medicine. (4/x)
More on healthcare, we talked about my bill to create #HealthSavingsAccounts to allow people to save, own their healthcare, go directly to doctors (#DPC), allow business to contribute with same tax break, use health-sharing, & how to drive prices down! (5/x)
On guns & crime, we talked about how our culture & society is broken, how we don’t enforce existing laws, how FBI & DOJ don’t focus on ideology-based criminal activity enough, & how any laws must protect due process & constitutional rights. (6/x)
On spending, I expressed my belief we have a spending problem not a revenue problem (that revenues are up this year) & my frustration with the GOP & Democrats for lack of seriousness to limit spending, & highlighted my efforts to change that. (7/x)
On the border, I shared my experiences visiting the border – the fact we have approx. 600,000 people who have been “caught & released” & this is bad while cartels get empowered & both Americans & migrants get hurt because we fail to do our job. (8/x)
More on the border, we discussed ways to solve the problem – like we now see today the President addressing the Flores “catch & release” problem driving much of the traffic, and my legislation to designate cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organization. (9/x)
And we discussed numerous other issues… as we should. To be clear – Tx Indivisible has no interest in civil dialogue, they have a radical, leftist, agenda that is out-of-touch with the vast majority of Texans in #Tx21 and beyond. (10/x)
And a note on Israel. I brought up Israel on purpose – because our bipartisan trip there was exceptional. Israel is our ally and a strong democracy. They are small, but defend against hostile enemies – including Hezbollah’s 130,000 rockets pointing at them. (11/x)
They are a democracy, with about 1.9 million Arabs representing 20% of the population… with Arab members in the Knesset. They are a happy people (13th happiest in the world) who have an outstanding culture of community (12/x)
The West Bank needs more work, but it is far better than Gaza since Israel pulled out, where there is economic collapse & turmoil under Hamas leadership – which continues to target Israel (while Israel continues operating power plants to power Gaza). (13/x)
A number of my Democrat colleagues chose to support BDS & refuse to acknowledge the truth that Israel is a strong ally, support our intelligence & missile defense, & operate on the front lines against terrorism, & those colleagues’ actions risk our national security (14/x)
…& thus they risk the security & well being of #Tx21, for not the least reason, that we have a strong military presence, Army Futures, Fort Sam, & in addition, critical high tech & cyber security w/ which we partner w/ Israel (as we discussed w/ @netanyahu). (15/x)
And notably, the #4Speakers (Omar, Tlaib, AOC, Pressley) & their leftist ideology & continued anti-Israel bias have totally captured the Democrat-led House hostage & no amount of revisionism or shouting by Tx Indivisible will change that, rather amplifies their radicalism. (16/x)
Finally, I have come to know @JTiloveTX & find him to be a straight-forward journalist. I appreciate @TheTexanNews countering a narrative re: Israel in his @statesman story, it’s been amended, but regardless he has a job to do & I look forward to seeing him on the trail. (17/x)
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