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| | Saturday, February 16, 2019
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Roe news conference
First District Congressman Phil Roe, Republican of Johnson City held a news conference Friday to address issues of concern to his constituents. Roe voted Thursday for the federal budget resolution which includes $22 billion for border security, including $1.3 billion for 55 new miles of physical barrier or wall on the southern border, an increase of 5,000 detention beds, funding for enhanced surveillance technology and more border agents. There are also funds to secure the ports of entry, through which so much of drug traffic enters the US. The lawmaker said he understands why President Donald Trump has declared a national emergency in an effort to get more money for extending the wall. Roe described the situation on the border as “a crisis”. “We can't continue as we are and have a sovereign country, we have to protect our southern border. I agree with the president that this is an emergency. I wish Congress, especially the Democrats, had done their job and given him the funding he needed to help secure the border, which he said he wanted to do. The president is looking at this as his only other option.” But one reporter questioned whether the current status of the southern border a national emergency, pointing out that others have suggested mass shootings in the US are more of a national emergency. Roe said as a physician he is concerned about the possibility that undocumented immigrants could enter the US with a contagious disease, take it to the thousands who are in a detention center and then spread it to the general population. "And the other part is the thousands of people who leave their homes and are sexually abused on their way their way up here, who are sexually trapped. That is an emergency." With regard to the growing gun violence, Roe said he doesn't know the solution. "In his country we have a legal right to have a weapon, and law abiding citizens have not been the problem. There is a big problem and I don't know how we solve this, but we have a mental health crisis in this country. And how we determine how to keep guns out of the hands of mentally unstable people, is a challenge for us. It's a challenge for law enforcement and our society, and I don't have an answer for that." A recent report says the national debt surpassed $22 trillion for the first time on February 13, a milestone that experts warned could jeopardize the economic security of every American. The number is a jump of more than $30 billion just this month. The national debt has been rising at a faster rate following the passage of the $1.5 trillion tax-cut package a little more than a year ago, along with congressional efforts to increase spending on domestic and military programs. The nation has added more than $1 trillion in debt in the last 11 months alone. Roe says the problem primarily is the mandatory portion of the budget. "We have two pots of money; one is discretionary money and one is mandatory money. The mandatory costs which account for 70 percent of the budget, include social security, medicaid, medicare, interest on the debt, and the discretionary part is what we just had the shutdown about...the other appropriations. Right now in medicare alone, to bring it into balance, we would have to double the premiums. We are paying out twice as much as we are taking in." The congressman says it now is up to society how to address the issue. "After the president signs the budget agreement, we go back to 2011 funding levels or about a $70 billion reduction in defense spending." Roe says Congress will have to decide later this year whether to raise the cap on the debt limit again, because if over time the economy doesn't grow enough, the budget deficit will continue to grow.
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