Ted Cruz just upped the populist ante for 2016 Republicans

In a Wednesday talk at the Heritage Foundation, the Texas senator sharpened anti-corporatist critique.

Ted Cruz just raised the bar for Republican presidential hopefuls angling for the fiery populist mantle.

In a 40-minute stemwinder delivered to a friendly crowd at the Heritage Foundation on Wednesday, the junior senator from Texas inveighed against a corrupt alignment of corporate and political power that he shorthanded as the “Washington Cartel.” That’s apparently new coinage, and you can expect to hear a lot more of it as Cruz tries to elbow his way out of the GOP presidential primary’s second tier and into serious contention for the nomination.

His speech was short on policy prescriptions, and he’s already struck on the anti-establishment theme that organized it. But the acidity of his vitriol tipped the rhetorical pH scale. “Lobbyists and career politicians today make up what I call the Washington Cartel,” he said. “And it operates very much like other cartels. It operates like OPEC. I don’t know, like sheikhs, if they actually wear robes. But they nonetheless on a daily basis are conspiring against the American people.” In Cruz’s formulation, every moneyed interest and every leading pol, Republicans included, are in on it: Big banks, “GM and Chrysler and its suppliers,” “union bosses,” “rich yuppies” buying Teslas, “fat cat insurers,” Enron, Solyndra, Air India and the other beneficiaries of the Ex-Im bank, corn growers, wind energy purveyors, sugar producers, Big Box retailers, and their giant online brethren.

As he spoke, the Senate was preparing to take the last step in handing President Obama fast track authority to wrap work on the 12-nation Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement. Cruz had been an early and important ally for the White House in its bid to secure that negotiating wiggle room. Back in April, he joined House Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) in penning a Wall Street Journal op-ed calling the authority essential to “send a signal to the world. America’s trading partners will know that the U.S. is trustworthy and then put their best offers on the table.”

The Obama administration viewed Cruz’s endorsement as a major coup. Heading into the thick of the debate, the White House worried over keeping other Tea Party-affiliated Republicans on board with its trade agenda, since the whole project needed near-uniform GOP support. Cruz’s position made it safe for wary House Republicans to climb aboard.

But on Tuesday, as the White House’s push for fast track faced its final significant challenge in the Senate, Cruz defected. The problem, he suggested without evidence, was that Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) had thrown a deal with Democrats to save the Export Import bank into the bargain. And that federal agency, which exists to help finance American exports, has become a bête noire for the anti-corporatist right that Cruz seeks to champion. “There’s too much corporate welfare, too much cronyism and corrupt dealmaking, by the Washington cartel,” he wrote in the op-ed explaining why he soured on fast track that slyly previewed his Wednesday line. So an uncharitable view of Cruz’s flip on fast track might note its timing a day before the Heritage talk and the fact that it brought his position on the issue of the day neatly into line with his theme.

Obama’s trade push — a defining priority he shares with the big business lobby — cleared the Tuesday hurdle, with no votes to spare, mostly on the backs of Senate Republicans. As Cruz lit out in a different direction, his Wednesday address laid a new marker for those of his presidential rivals who likewise hope an attack on the system they seek to lead will prove a winning formula.

Unfortunately, Cruz switched to the correct position on the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) too late to stop the monstrosity. Had he not supported TPA on its first vote in the Senate, it might have been stopped in the House.

As recently as a week ago, he was issuing press releases explaining why he was right in supporting the TPA. It was only in the face of total repudiation by his base that he triangulated to this current position.

As always, a bill that does real damage passes by a few votes, and our so-called conservative representatives explain that they did all they could.

Cruz is a part of that same Washington crowd that he criticizes. And sadly, my favorite (Walker) is busily issuing pro-trade rhetoric too, as an excuse to ceding more authority to this lawless President.

I have never been more discouraged.

> “So if Cruz is so against crony capitalism, why does he support bringing in more H1B foreign workers?”

Your question has been addressed countless times on FR. I hope you are sincere in asking rather than just looking for an opportunity to throw mud.

First, Ted Cruz does not support bringing in “workers”. He does not support H1B abuses such as what happened at Disney or SCE and many others. Those are clear ABUSES of the H1B program.

What he does support is retaining TOP SCIENTIFIC TALENT in laboratories, in university research facilities, in academic posts, etc.

It is a fact that highly intelligent people are blessed with genetics that give them abilities that are enormously advantageous to America’s scientific dominance. These brains are born in America and outside America.

For example, Milton Friedman who was a son of newly arrived Jewish immigrants. I knew and met Milton Friedman several times because he was a longtime colleague and friend of the chairman of my doctoral committee. Milton was a very humble and nice man who when engaged in conversation or discussion, was extremely clear and organized in his thinking, efficient and concise as well. He never said too much. He always said just enough to communicate a set of thoughts and relations. And often what he said was profound. He was extremely humble and modest. Humility and modesty are standard traits of top talented scientific people.

There are millions of young Milton Friedman’s around the globe and many are brought to America via the H1B program where they join young American born talent in laboratories and research facilities.

But in recent years, especially under Obama, Corporations have abused the H1B program to benefit their bottom line. The cap on H1Bs is now only about 65,000 and there is a fight between universities wanting to recruit top talent and corporations who want cheap labor. This has to stop but it does not mean the H1B program should be cut back or scrapped. It means stopping the abuses by new and strong policies.

There are more than 1.5 million faculty members in US universities. US universities are enriched and strengthened by having visiting scholars, and researchers and scientists from some of the world’s top universities such as Oxford University or any of the top German universities not to mention Russian mathematicians and physicists who are nothing short of amazing. We need to keep the scientific exchange and infrastructure in place and the H1B program is a very important crucial part of that effort.

But under Obama, the recruitment of top talent has slowed to a trickle and instead there is an influx of foreign ‘workers’ who represent cheap labor. We need Ted Cruz to stop this influx and redirect the recruitment to top scientific talent. Because Obama’s policies hurt America and those policies must be scrapped and replaced.

Of the millions of academics, think tank scholars and laboratory scientist slots that presently exist in America, Ted Cruz wants to raise the cap to 325,000 for H1Bs who are wanted and needed in order to keep the highest level of scientific standards and rigor for America. Our universities are still tops in the world but unless we can keep them staffed with the best talent available, we risk losing our scientific edge.

In history, America has benefited greatly from foreign scientists joining with American academics, scientists, innovators, inventors and entrepreneurs.

Here is a short list of some of the most famous names:

Albert Einstein
Kurt Gödel
Nikola Tesla
Wernher Von Braun
Danyu Lin

and so many others. There are today millions of human beings with genius on level to the famous names above. Ted Cruz’ modest request to increase the H1B caps for this types of people to 325,000 is nothing to what’s out there to be harvested.

But first we need Ted to crack down on the abuses and then to reorient the H1B program with strict directives and criteria for who is eligible. We need to make sure that every person issued an H1B visa will benefit American society.

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