52 THE COASTAL BEND MAGAZINE • Late Summer 2018 TheCoastalBend.com Coastal Bend Community “Debt and Spending” is the first topic on the “Issues” page of Rep. Cloud’s campaign website. I pointed out to the congressman that the federal deficit rose from $585 billion in 2016, to $666 billion in 2017, and is set to ex- plode this year to $1.2 trillion under President Donald J. Trump and the GOP congress. What is your case that Republicans are good for re- ducing deficits and national debt? I’m not making a case. I’m making a case for me serving our district. I do think that we need people who…understand that we cannot continue to spend our way to success, that our kids and grand kids matter. Our founders consid- ered it immoral to past debt to generation to genera- tion to generation. At some point we are going to have to prioritize and that’s going to be tough. Would you disagree with those in your party who have made decisions that have led to a doubling of the deficit in two years? Getting fiscal spending under control I think is extremely important. We saw the national debt in the previous ten years go from $9 trillion to $21 tril- lion or something like that. There’s a lot of blame to go around…What we’re seeing right now is a resurgence in the American economy. We’re seeing manufacturing start again; we’re seeing almost full employment. So, should deficits be going up under those economic circumstances? In time I think we’ll see, as the econo- my grows, we’ll see those things stable out. We are in a transition period right now. I pointed out to Rep. Cloud the similarities to this year’s midterm elections and those of 2010, which saw the Tea Party movement and opposition to President Obama de- liver a historic victory to Republicans, along with con- trol of both houses of congress. Do you think that a Democratic wave election is a possibility and I noticed on your website that the president’s name is not mentioned, at least not on your “Issues” page? I’m the one running on the ballot, so that’s why. But you support the president’s agenda I assume? The overall agenda that we’ve seen that’s brought financial growth—I don’t agree 100% with my wife of 19 years—but you don’t have to get to 100% agreement to make progress. People having jobs solves a lot of problems and so the robust economy that we’re seeing, where people can find work, means that fami- lies are taken care of. A lot of those things take care of themselves when you have a good economy. The resur- gence of America, the strong economy, I think is a very positive thing that we’ve seen—and it’s been a very quick turnaround. Well you say ‘quick turnaround’ but we have seen 75 or 80 months of consecutive job growth in the U.S., you are aware of that? Yes, but it was an extremely slow, slow recovery. You believe the national jobs numbers now. Do you acknowl- edge that jobs reports under Obama were accurate as well? I don’t think the people of District 27 elected me to be a pundit, so I don’t really opine about those kind of things. The Port of Corpus Christi is now the number one petrochemical export port in the U.S. Do you think that it was a good development that the U.S. was fi- nally allowed to export oil and gas? Sure. Right now, we are working on going from an energy dependent na- tion to an energy dominant nation. Since the 40-year ban on the export of oil and gas by the United States was lifted on January 1, 2016, under the Obama Administration, the port has jumped on the opportunity to sell internationally. With new pipelines under construction, it could become one of the top oil and gas export ports in the world. That doesn’t happen without the Port of Corpus Chris- ti. In Washington the case to be made is that this is a national priority, it’s a national security issue. For us to be producing our own energy and being able to export it in a way that increases our influence in the world market and decrease the influence of our ene- mies—people would rather buy from America than to be buying from the countries that we’ve been buying from that don’t like us. Do you support the president’s position of shutting down the government if you in Congress do not give him what he wants on immigration, including fund- ing for the border wall that he said Mexico would pay for? I’ll say again I wasn’t elected to be a pundit. I’ll be happy to talk about what I think about immigra- tion. But will you in Congress give him that funding? I believe he walked—I believe there’s been development on that. In July, President Trump stated that he was willing to shut down the federal government if the Republican con- gress does not approve his immigration proposals, in- cluding taxpayer funding for a wall on the U.S./Mexico border. Trump has repeated the threat and has made no statement retracting it as of our press date. Do you support the border wall? I support a wall where it makes sense. Do you support the building of the wall from the mouth of the Rio Grande River at Boca Chica Beach, to north of Laredo along the riv- er—where the majority of smuggling both of drugs and humans takes place? What we need to do is we need secure the border, which includes a physical bar- rier in some places, where it makes sense, but it also includes boots on the ground. It includes technology; it includes drones; it includes everything that needs to be done. Beyond that we need our immigration courts reformed, so that we have the throughput for the in- flux of people that we’re seeing—to make sure that we de-fund sanctuary cities, and we need to look at the magnet that is drawing people here. So, is that ‘no’ to the wall along the Rio Grande in that area that I described? Following the most pregnant of pregnant pauses, it be- came clear that Rep. Cloud fully understood how un- popular the concept of a border wall is to most Texans, including many Republicans, both due to logistical prac- ticality and to the fact that there are some 900 private landowners along the Rio Grande River. In order to build a wall in Texas, hundreds of eminent domain claims will have to be made by the federal government. I’m for securing the border. I’m for building a wall where it makes sense to build a wall. But does it make sense to build the wall there? I don’t think…I’d have to pull out a map and take a look at that. Well, you’ve been there. There’s a river… At this point the congressman’s staff interrupted to let us know that he was out of time. Considering that the U.S./Mexico Border is a line that runs down the middle of the river—you have seen the thin, black line that is painted half-way across each international bridge—un- less a wall is to be constructed in the water, half-way across the Rio Grande, it will have to be built on land, which must be on the U.S. side in Texas, not on the Mex- ico side. Thus, the Texas river bank would be ceded to Mexico and anyone who made it across would be on U.S. …does it make sense to build the wall [along the Rio Grande]? “I don’t think…I’d have to pull out a map and take a look at that.”— Rep. Cloud Former Rep. Blake Farenthold was elected in the Tea Party wave of 2010 and served until April 2018, when he resigned amid a sexual harassment claim that was settled with $84,000 in taxpayer money from a little known congressional fund. Gov. Abbott and other Republicans have demanded that Farenthold repay the money, but Rep. Michael Cloud has not.