John Cornyn Quotes

#1. By the Obama administration's reasoning, it would be constitutionally permissible to make Americans purchase nearly any product (broccoli, gym membership) that improved their health and thereby contributed to lower health-care costs.

John Cornyn

#2. Americans deserve an attorney general that will be honest with them, they deserve an attorney general who will uphold the basic standards of political independence and accountability.

John Cornyn

#3. I think many people simply feel like they don't recognize their country anymore.

John Cornyn

#4. I think that what people want is for government to function ... not through temper tantrums and saying we are not going to participate, we are not going to play ball.

John Cornyn

#5. I don't know what 'operational control' of the border means, but I do understand the English language. And as I understand that phrase, that's not true. We do not have operational control.

John Cornyn

#6. I'm speaking of the ability of people of faith to freely express their beliefs in the public square.

John Cornyn

#7. My goal has always been to figure out how we can advance the conservative cause.

John Cornyn

#8. And if you like 14.4 percent unemployment, if you like the fact that 70 percent of home mortgages in Nevada are underwater, then stay the course. Vote for Harry Reid.

John Cornyn

#9. Why is it that half of the households in America pay zero income tax? We need some real tax reform.

John Cornyn

#10. I want judges on the Supreme Court who will not use that position to impose their personal policy preferences or political agenda on the American people.

John Cornyn

#11. There is no doubt where the founding fathers stood on this issue. They believed that people of faith should be permitted to express themselves in public. They believed that this country was big enough and free enough to allow expression of on enormous variety of views and beliefs.

John Cornyn

#12. Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife

John Cornyn

#13. Those who feel a little insecure about our border have some reason to feel that way.

John Cornyn

#14. I do not believe the border is secure and I still believe we have a long, long way to go.

John Cornyn

#15. Senators will do what they think they need to do to represent their constituents.

John Cornyn

#16. This country has gotten seriously off track under the Supreme Court when it went so far as to limit the right of even private citizens to freely express their religious views in public.

John Cornyn

#17. I don't know whether John Roberts has a twin, perhaps a sister or, uh, someone with a Hispanic last name.

John Cornyn

#18. Richard and I, along with millions of Americans - including even Joe Donnelly - believe that life is a gift from God. To try and construe his words as anything other than a restatement of that belief is irresponsible and ridiculous.

John Cornyn

#19. I am pleased to report that Texas is known for having one of the strongest set of open government laws in our Nation. And ever since that experience, I have long believed that our federal government could use 'a little Texas sunshine.'

John Cornyn

#20. But I think the - what the tea party movement demonstrates, and I think the, the, the enthusiasm that we're seeing from independents and Republicans, is that if Washington isn't going to change itself, then we're going to change Washington. And I think that's what we're seeing.

John Cornyn

#21. If Obamacare is allowed to stand - and Congress is allowed to make the purchase of government-endorsed health insurance compulsory - there will be no meaningful limit on Washington's reach into the lives of the American people. That is certainly not what the Founders intended.

John Cornyn

#22. I think we ought to talk about what the American people want, and that is jobs and get the economy on track.

John Cornyn

#23. I can't imagine the American people voting for Hillary Clinton to serve basically the third term of Barack Obama. And I think whoever the Republican primary voters and the delegates nominate, I will support that nominee wholeheartedly against a Hillary Clinton candidacy.

John Cornyn

#24. The enemy is not Islam, the great world faith, but a perversion of Islam.

John Cornyn

#25. Sometimes, it might be called conservative; sometimes it might be called liberal. But the point is that the meaning of the Constitution and other laws should not change unless we the people change them.

John Cornyn

#26. When it rains, it pours - figuratively and literally.

John Cornyn

#27. Nobody else in the world can do what we can do. And nobody else is willing to do it for altruistic reasons. I mean, we don't go into places like Iraq to grab their oil or colonize their country. We go there to deliver, as George W. Bush said, the blessings of liberty.

John Cornyn

#28. Today 25 million Texans can celebrate our liberty, and honor the founding generation of Texans who secured it for us. Happy Texas Independence Day, and God Bless Texas.

John Cornyn

#29. The Voting Rights Act was a seminal victory for our country and a great healing moment. But there are some who want to continue to drive divisions and create phony narratives.

John Cornyn

#30. You can always find a reason to say no. It's the easiest vote. It's also not exactly a red badge of courage.

John Cornyn

#31. I don't really think it's appropriate for me to be picking and choosing in the primaries. It's pretty dumb politics for a Republican to choose between Republicans in a contested primary because obviously you're going to be offending some people.

John Cornyn

#32. The enemy is not just terrorism. It is the threat posed specifically by Islamist terrorism, by Bin Ladin and others who draw on a long tradition of extreme intolerance within a minority strain of Islam that does not distinguish politics from religion, and distorts both.

John Cornyn

#33. It doesn't hurt to show some empathy.

John Cornyn

#34. Nothing makes the minority leader more mad than when his side is forced to play by its own rules.

John Cornyn

#35. Most people in America don't believe that "God" is a dirty word, but the sad fact is that some Americans are left to wonder whether the Supreme Court might have greater regard for it if it was.

John Cornyn

#36. The spread of democracy, the new foundation of the rule of law, and the creation of fledgling representative governments that honor and respect human rights-together these actions spell out the increasing marginalization of the terrorists, as they have fewer and fewer places to run and hide.

John Cornyn

#37. Unfortunately, the (budget) does not ... help Congress reform such programs as Medicaid and Medicare, which both grow at average rate of around 8 percent each year through 2015 and will continue to eat up more of the total federal budget.

John Cornyn

#38. If there is a nuclear tactic being used here, I submit it is the use of that obstruction where a willful minority blocks a bipartisan majority from voting on the President's judicial nominees.

John Cornyn

#39. Raising taxes is the last thing we should do amid the weakest economic recovery since World War II. Unfortunately, even if we avoid the full 'Taxmageddon' scenario, President Obama's health care law also contains a new surtax on investment that will take effect in 2013.

John Cornyn

#40. I don't support an amnesty.(Cornyn) demands an ongoing focus on security and workplace enforcement before considering steps to grant legal status, let alone citizenship.

John Cornyn

#41. We need a straitjacket around Congress when it comes to spending so that they are forced to do what 49 states are required to do and what every family business and every family is required to do, and that's live within their means.

John Cornyn

#42. Believe it or not, one of the things I try to do around here is try to look for opportunities to work with people across the aisle. I know that's not the common narrative. But the truth is if you want to get anything done, that's an absolute requirement.

John Cornyn

#43. America deserves a nominee who reveres the law, not one whose service on the bench is conditioned on political promises.

John Cornyn

#44. I'm afraid, is that there are a number of groups who really don't want a fair-minded judge who has an openness to both sides of the argument. Rather, they want judges who will impose their liberal agenda on the American people; views so liberal that they cannot prevail at the ballot box.

John Cornyn

#45. A vast majority of Republicans are on the record saying that they believe the Violence Against Women Act should be reauthorized. Let me be clear: I believe that Violence Against Women Act must be reauthorized.

John Cornyn

#46. People are tired of just yelling at the TV set. They actually are going to turn out and vote.

John Cornyn

#47. One of the dangers of being here [the Senate] a while is you may have been on record directly and diametrically opposed to what one is saying today.

John Cornyn

#48. The Senate used to be a place of great debate and accomplishment. Now it is run like a dictatorship shutting out the voices of millions of Americans.

John Cornyn

#49. If we can make Washington more like Texas, the whole country will be a winner.

John Cornyn

#50. A Supreme Court nomination and appointment is not a roving commission to rewrite our laws.

John Cornyn

#51. In my experience, endorsements by public officials, they don't count for anything.

John Cornyn

#52. Think for a moment about what Obamacare has done: The federal government has come up with its own (ever-evolving) definition of 'health insurance,' which now includes free access to sterilization, contraception, and certain abortifacients such as the morning-after pill.

John Cornyn

#53. The Violence Against Women Act has been a true bipartisan success story since it was first enacted in 1994. In my home state of Texas alone, its programs have helped hundreds of thousands of victims to break free from the terrible cycle of domestic violence.

John Cornyn

#54. Our military service members put their lives on the line to protect the rights and freedoms of all Americans - yet many still face substantial roadblocks as they attempt to cast their ballots ... This legislation begins to right this national disgrace.

John Cornyn

#55. Depictions or expressions of sex, violence, crime are all permitted virtually without limit; but religion, it seems, never.No wonder many in America seem to believe that the court has become one more inclined to protect pornography than to protect religious expression.

John Cornyn

#56. Justices are not politicians. They don't run on a political platform, and senators should not ask them to do so.

John Cornyn

#57. I just think the mood of the country is now that people don't necessarily want an elected official to tell them how they ought to cast their vote. Matter of fact, it's the opposite, and they want to express themselves, and they have a right to, and I'll respect their choice.

John Cornyn