Cornyn’s fight to cut debt carries political price
By STEWART M. POWELL
Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle
Dec. 23, 2009, 9:05PM

WASHINGTON — When Texas Sen. John Cornyn recently voted against legislation funding NASA, with its thousands of jobs at Houston’s Johnson’s Space Center, it caused a bit of a stir back home.

After all, the Republican senator always prided himself on being a champion of home-state interests.

Even Cornyn readily admits that his vote is an about-face. But there’s a clear explanation for the change: Cornyn says he’s trying to strike a balance between his dual roles as a senator seeking federal spending in Texas and as an emerging GOP congressional leader fighting to cut government expenditures.

Cornyn, the chairman of the Senate Republicans’ 2010 campaign committee, says his recent vote does not signal opposition to spending federal money in Texas — just his growing disillusionment with the deepening federal deficit.

“I am a fiscal conservative, so I approach all of this from that perspective,â€