Ebola: Senator Ted Cruz Is Asking the Right Questions

I’ve gone on Fox News repeatedly calling for the president to use powers under 8 USC 1182 (f) to close the borders to passport holders from nations with raging Ebola epidemics.  Obama could do this with the stroke of a pen, but he doesn’t.  It raises the question of why it is that, time and time again, the safety of Americans seems to be a lower priority to this president than other “esoteric faculty lounge” concerns, as I put it on The Kelly File.

Senator Ted Cruz is asking some of the same questions the overwhelming majority of Americans want to be asked.  In a letter to the FAA, Cruz asks, in pertinent part:

1. What training  is currently provided to airline carriers and their crew to identify the symptoms of infectious diseases?

2. What action has the FAA taken since March 2014 regarding Ebola?

3. Does the FAA intend to limit or suspend travel from Ebola-racked nations?

4. Once a case is confirmed on a flight, do other passengers get notification?

We’ve learned over the last few days that the answers to these questions are, respectively, little to none, not enough, no, and are you kidding?

Of all the uncertainty surrounding the Ebola epidemic, one thing is true: the existing measures for keeping Ebola out of the United States failed, period.

We also know that the Obama administration, as it often does, has entered Wonderland — keeping Liberians and citizens from Sierra Leone here illegally in the United States from being deported back to their homes.

While Obama doesn’t take steps to use federal power to protect Americans by stopping the flow of potentially infected foreigners, he exercises his authority to protect foreigners from returning home.

Enter Cruz…  For asking the questions which are on everyone’s mind, Cruz has been attacked by one of the the usual suspects — Politico.  The piece bear-baits Cruz by pitting him against Texas Governor Rick Perry.  The Dallas Morning News followed, falsely claiming Cruz urged the FAA to “shut down flights.”

The Dallas Morning News is confusing me with Ted Cruz.  I am the one who called for the president to shut down flights, not the senator from Texas.

So why aren’t flights shut down?  The defenders of the status quo push the absurd argument that Ebola will get worse if Liberians are barred from the United States.  They claim a border blockade will prevent American aid from helping to stop Ebola’s spread in Africa.

Nice try.  But there are other ways to get people into West Africa other than KLM and United.  Google C-17 and you’ll find but one.  If stopping Ebola is a national security priority, then the Air Force can lend some big jets to move resources in and out.  In the meantime, barring passport holders from these countries from entering the Untied States is a good thing.

Government officials defending the status quo better realize they have no more leeway with the public.  One more incident, and a firestorm will ensue.  Nothing has frightened human beings since the beginning of time more than unseen killers.  Even invading armies are not as feared.  They tell us that Ebola cannot travel by air, or is not contagious until symptoms are obvious.  Really?  Some other well-placed scientists say that cannot be ruled out. (It’s even worse.)

Politicians on the side of the status quo are taking a big gamble.  If they want to place the traveling ease of Liberians over the lives of Americans, children included, that is a gamble which might bring big losses.   Left-wing publications are defending the status quo because Ebola is on Obama’s watch.  He could have closed the borders and prevented Ebola from reaching Dallas, but didn’t.  What happens in the future is on him.