When Mayor Emil Garza introduced 27th District U.S. Congressman Mike Cloud at the May 29 Rotary meeting, he joked that they had been eating all day, from Jalisco taquitos to Mad Batter Cheese Cake to Pecan House delicacies as well as lunch and dinner at the Country Club. He also emphasized that “America is not America without rural America.”
In the Congressman’s speech to Cuero’s Rotarians, he said that he was interested in long-term stability and emphasized the importance of fiscal responsibility.
Cloud said that a recent U.S. Treasury bond auction did not go well because they had to raise the interest rates in order to entice investors.
“The reason we're having trouble with the Treasury bond options is because investors are no longer believing that we're ever going to get serious about the fiscal position of the nation,” Cloud said.
He said that not much else matters if a Treasury bond auction doesn't go well and our currency collapses.
“All these other political discussions won't happen,” he said. “We have to make sure that we signal that we're going to get serious about reining in spending in our country.”
Cloud has had an inside view of the changes in Washington as a member of the Oversight Committee, which includes DOGE activity, as well as the Appropriations Committee.
He discussed the “Big Beautiful Bill” passed by the House on May 22, saying the overall goal is to get to pre-COVID spending levels.
Financial analysts disagree on the bill’s effect on the deficit. But, according to factcheck. org, the reconciliation bill would extend the 2017 tax cuts, make other tax cuts, boost border security funding and cut Medicaid spending.
In regard to spending cuts, Cloud said DOGE had brought “amazing algorithms” that exposed waste and corruption.
Cloud described the political reality of an 18-month window to effect change in Washington with a new administration.
In regard to agricultural interests, he said Congress included $30 million to combat the New World Screwworm in the reconciliation bill. Otherwise on the district level, he said his office is available for help with Social Security and tax issues as well as passport and military honors.
“A lot of people don't know that we're here to serve in those kinds of things,” Cloud said. “Those are things we do every single day that never make the news.”
