Marsha Blackburn with VOZ: Bidenomics and the aftermath of the border crisis

Marsha Blackburn is one of the most popular Republican senators on Capitol Hill. In addition to her high profile on social networks and eloquence when testifying, there are some viral moments during Senate hearings. One of the most memorable was when she asked then-Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson what a woman was.

Although born and educated in Mississippi, the Republican began her political career in Tennessee, first as executive director of the Tennessee Film, Entertainment and Music Commission, then making the leap to the local Senate, where she held a seat until 2003, when she had to move to Washington DC.

She served in the House of Representatives for more than 15 years, then successfully ran for the seat that Bob Corker would vacate in the Senate.

Identified with the Tea Party, she was listed as the most conservative member of the upper chamber in 2019, the same year that Kamala Harris was designated as the most progressive. However, she also led bipartisan efforts, such as the Existing Information Technology Information Procedures Review Act (Report Act), on which I led the effort with Senator Jon Ossoff (D-GA), or the Child Online Safety Act (KOSA), on which she worked alongside Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CN).

She was even considered to be Donald Trump's vice presidential candidate in the November election, becoming a favorite of political commentator Michael Knowles.

With less than four months to go before the presidential election, the Tennessee senator spoke exclusively with VOZ to analyze the nearly four years of Joe Biden's and Kamala Harris tenure, with special emphasis on the economy and the border crisis.

Blackburn with VOZ: "Every state has become a border state."

The senator began the interview on the Biden-Harris handling of the southern border, which has witnessed a historic influx of illegal immigrants since last Jan. 20, 2021, when Democrats replaced Trump in the White House.

As for the causes of this situation. Blackburn remarked that there is only one: the "open border" policy. "Every state has become a border state and every city has become a border city," she added.

She also added thats not a problem of a lack of laws, but rather that the current laws are not being enforced. "Joe Biden's policy from day one was to start taking executive actions that would weaken immigration law and make it easier to illegally enter the country," the Tennessee Republican continued.

What are Border Patrol agents asking for?

The Biden-Harris administration even blamed Republicans for not voting for legislation they worked on from the White House with Sen. James Lankford (R-OK).

"Congressional Republicans don't care about securing the border or fixing America's broken immigration system. If they did, they would have voted to enforce the strictest border regulations in history. Instead, today they put partisan politics ahead of our country's national security," the president said in a statement on the southern border.

According to Blackburn, that legislation would have done "nothing" to improve border security. The senator was in contact with the Border Patrol, whose agents told her that three things are needed at the southern border: "A physical barrier to keep people from walking into the country, better technology and more officers and agents."

As for the impact of the border crisis on the daily lives of citizens, the Republican first mentioned the entry of fentanyl, which is the "number one killer among Americans ages 18 to 45."

She also added the overcrowding of hospitals and health centers, a situation that also carries over into the education system, where sometimes schools with not-so-high budgets are forced to hire more teachers.

"I was in a community this week, holding a county meeting and they said they were very concerned about the amount of human trafficking and they were starting to get the runaway youth who had been trafficked into the country and are not related to the adult who brought them in," continued Blackburn.

" The White House is disconnected from the reality of the voters."

When it came to talking about the economy, Blackburn remarked that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris inherited inflation of 1.4% , but quickly escalated it based on spending packages and more production costs for businesses.

The result was an annual inflation rate of 9%, the highest in decades. The senator even published on her website a section explaining the performance of the Biden-Harris Administration with respect to price increases.

In turn, she pointed out that the cumulative inflation of the four years of Democratic management is a 33% increase in the value of rent, 25% in food and 41% in heating and cooling.

Blackburn was also concerned about excessive Federal Government spending and listed some steps needed to lower the public deficit: freeze federal spending to analyze what spending to cut, freeze state contracting and restore federal agencies to make them more efficient.

The Quality of Judges Nominated by the Biden-Harris Administration

Finally, the senator referred to her work on the Senate Judiciary Committee, particularly the quality of judicial nominees they have received over the past few years from the White House.

"One of the things that has surprised us is the number of people who want to go to the federal district or federal appellate court and have never been judges. They have no experience as judges," she exclaimed in this regard.

She also explained that usually the White House works with each state's senators to find the best judicial nominees, but that has "not been the case" for the Biden-Harris Administration.

Full interview with Marsha Blackburn