Posted on 06/09/2018 11:48:22 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Speaking to a ballroom filled with Christian conservatives Thursday, 2016 presidential candidate Ted Cruz reflected on seven of the biggest victories for faith and families achieved since Donald Trump took over the White House in January 2017.
During a luncheon kicking off the annual Road to Majority Conference hosted by the influential social conservative advocacy group Faith & Freedom Coalition, the Texas senator celebrated the conservative political accomplishments of the last year and a half.
Cruz, who was the last Republican standing in Trump's way before Trump clinched the Republican nomination in 2016, has played a large role in the slim Republican-majority Senate that, he says, has led to victories for conservatives in addition to what has been accomplished by the Trump administration.
The following pages contain the seven "victories" outlined by Cruz during his 25-minute speech at the 2018 Road to Majority Conference.
1. The appointment of "principled, constitutionalist judges" There was no bigger voting issue for many Christian conservatives in 2016 than the vacancy on the United States Supreme Court and the appointment of constitutionalist judges.
Conservatives were delighted when Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch to replace the late Antonin Scalia on the bench. The former Tenth Circuit Court judge was confirmed on April 7, 2017.
In addition to the Gorsuch nomination, Trump has been successful in rapidly nominating federal judges at other levels of the judiciary.
In praising the Gorsuch selection, Cruz celebrated the Supreme Court's ruling this week in favor of Colorado baker Jack Phillips, who was fighting a six-year long legal battle after he was punished by the state government for refusing to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding.
"If we lived in the sort of society that those who called themselves liberal prescribe, a tolerant society, that would have been the end of the story," he said of Phillips' case. "He would have lived according to his faith and we would have respected that faith and the diversity amongst us. But there are those with a legal agenda that wanted to drive that baker out of business, to punish him and any other person of faith for daring to live according to their faith."
Cruz led several members of Congress in issuing an amicus brief to the Supreme Court in support of Phillips.
2. Human life
Cruz also celebrated the numerous pro-life victories that have been achieved by the Trump administration.
"We have seen in the last year-and-a-half significant victories for preserving innocent life," he said.
One of the first moves Trump made on the pro-life front was reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which prohibits foreign aid from going to organizations and clinics around the world that perform abortions.
Cruz also pointed out how the U.S. pulled out of funding the United Nations Population Fund that, he says, was "complicit in China's horrific practices of forced sterilizations and forced abortions."
"We saw [the Department of Health and Human Services] issue new rules, returning to the old rules prohibiting taxpayer funding from going to Planned Parenthood and clinics that provide abortions.
"Not only that, but we saw the administration rescind the abhorrent so-called contraceptive mandate in Obamacare — a mandate that was interpreted by the Obama administration to force or to try to force believers to fund abortion-inducing drugs. The consequences of that decision is in the litigation against the Little Sisters of the Poor."
3. Tax cut
Last December, the Republican-led Congress passed the most significant tax overhaul in three decades. The tax bill, conservatives say, will lead to more money being in the pockets of families.
"Cutting taxes on small businesses, cutting taxes on farmers, cutting taxes on ranchers, cutting taxes on families, doubling the standard deduction, What does that mean?" Cruz asked. "For a couple, standard deduction goes from $12,000 to $24,000. That means next year, 90 percent of Americans will be able to fill out your taxes on a postcard."
He pointed out that under the new tax bill, marginal tax rates are reduced in every bracket.
"We saw over 4 million Americans get pay raises, get bonuses because of the tax cut of $500, $1,000, more than $1,000. I was flying a few months ago on Southwest Airlines and a flight attendant walked up to me, hugged me and said 'Thanks for the pay raise.'"
Cruz argued that one of the most integral parts of the tax cut was the doubling of the child tax credit from $1,000 to $2,000 per child per year.
"If you have three kids, that is an additional $3,000 in your pocket," he said. "That's the money for your daughter to get braces. That is the money for you to take your kids on maybe the first family vacation you've been on in several years to go to Disney World, or to take your kids to a summer camp or maybe to invest in a college fund or help tuition or help pay healthcare. This is real money for people who are struggling and this is a group that cares about families."
4. Repealing of the Obamacare individual mandate
As part of the tax bill, conservatives were able to accomplish something that some thought was only a pipe dream by repealing the Obamacare individual mandate that left many liable to pay fines for not having healthcare.
"That is a big deal and something I led the fight to do in the Senate. I will tell you: back in October, there were maybe a half-dozen senators supporting us," Cruz said. "Most of the conference said 'Look, we made a run at Obamacare twice and we came up short. Let's not muck up tax reform with Obamacare.'"
He explained that he had to make the argument that repealing the mandate that individuals have health insurance would lead to millions of Americans who can't afford to pay health insurance not having to worry about paying a fine from the Internal Revenue Service every year.
"Here is how the Obamacare individual mandate works. Every year, the IRS fines 6.5 million Americans because they can't afford health insurance. Of those, roughly 80 percent earn $50,000 per year or less. Roughly 40 percent, earn $25,000 a year or less. About 1 million are Texans. I want you to imagine for a second that you are a single mom. You are working two jobs and you are struggling to make ends meet and you are trying to provide for your kids. You are not even making $25,000 a year and to add insult to injury, the IRS comes along and fines you because you can't afford to pay the premiums that have skyrocketed under Obamacare."
Cruz said that although there were only about six senators who wanted to put language to repeal the individual mandate in the tax bill in October, all 52 Republican senators ended up voting for the language in the end.
"That is a big conservative victory that no one in Washington thought we would win," he said. "Look, Obamacare is clearly the biggest unfinished promise that Republicans have. We need to finish the job. We need to keep rolling up our sleeves and finish the job and repeal every single word of Obamacare."
5. School choice tax bill amendment
An amendment that Cruz introduced to allow parents and families to extend 529 college funds to pay for K-12 education at public and private schools became the only amendment that was adopted on the Senate floor pertaining to the tax bill, according to the senator.
Under the expansion, parents can withdraw up to $10,000 per year from their 529 plans to pay for their children's primary or secondary education.
"With that, we saw the most far-reaching, federal school choice legislation that has ever passed come into law providing benefits to up to 50 million school kids across the country, enabling parents and grandparents to save for your kids and to save for your grandkids and choose the best education options for them."
6. Moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem
In May, Cruz attended the historic opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem, a move that he and many other social conservative Christians have long pushed for.
He praised Trump for the fact that he was able to do something that presidents in both political parties have promised and failed to do.
"We had a year-and-a-half battle in the Trump administration. I interjetically argued for moving the embassy and President Trump made the right decision and now our embassy is in Jerusalem, the once and eternal capital of Israel."
7. Withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal
Cruz is one of the most avid critics of the Obama administration's deal finalized in January 2016 to lift nuclear sanctions against Iran in exchange for concessions in its nuclear program for the next several years.
In fact, he and Trump held a joint rally to bash the deal in September 2015.
When Trump announced that he was pulling out of the Iran deal last month, Cruz was among the many who applauded.
"The president made the right decision to withdraw from the disastrous Obama-Iran nuclear deal. Obama had sent tens of billions of dollars to the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism, the Ayatollah Khomeini, who chants 'Death to America and death to Israel.' When he says that, I believe him," Cruz said during the conference.
He asserted that the deal would have led to Iran having nuclear weapons.
"Once again, there was a battle in the Trump administration over whether we should stay in the deal or pull out. I interjectically urged the president that the right thing to do for the national security of this country is pull out of the deal and use every force we have — economic, diplomatic and if need be, military, to ensure the ayatollah never ever gets nuclear weapons."
"We see in the federal courts all across the country, we see it in Justice Neil Gorsuch and let me be one to thank God for the victory we had this week in the Colorado [baker's case]."
As evidenced by all the GOP candidates (including Trump), as well as Hillary and all of her surrogates (such as President Obama and Michelle), politicians will spew any lie in an effort to get their candidate elected.
The notion that their is—or ever has been—any standard of decorum for political conflict is patently ludicrous. All anyone has to do is go back through American history and review the record. This is one arena where nothing has changed as far as scurrilous attacks, lies, libel, and slander are concerned...
I realize a lot of folks try to talk that down, but I’ve seen some pretty good arguments against him being a natural born citizen. In my heart, I don’t think he is.
This may be the second or third time I’ve mentioned this to you, it’s not something I focus on.
I believe he fails just on the merits of his actions, if folks are honest with themselves.
It has been my take that the citizenship issue misdirects people away from who and what he truly is, but...
The citizenship test may in fact be the biggest problem for Ted. It wouldn’t go unaddressed if Ted were the Republican nominee.
Folks are mistaken to dismiss the likelihood that he is not qualified to be president.
RE: So we have a Republican Convention with tens of millions of people watching, and Ted’s best effort was to tell folks to vote their conscience without mentioning Trump by name.
Then he says he will vote for Trump and sits on the phones for about an hour.
Then four days before the election he appeared at three campaign sites, refusing to mention Trump by name at one of them.
____________________________________
I don’t blame him for that.
Trump was an unknown quantity. What we have is a man who speaks on both sides of his mouth, in the past supporting unconservative things like using eminent domain to seize the property of private citizens in favor of big businesses ( see Connecticut’s Kelo vs City of New London ).
Here was Trump who used his name for a a Trump University that did not produce what was promised and when sued, finally had to settle for $25 Million.
Here was the Trump who without citing any good evidence, uses his underlings ( and he parrots them ) to accuse Ted Cruz’s father of being part of the conspiracy to assassinate JFK ( how would you feel if I did it to your father ?).
That Ted Cruz was kind enough to tell people to vote their conscience because Trump was an unknown quantity, and then AFTER Trump proves his conservative bonafide by really enacting conservative things, he then supports him, just shows that Ted Cruz is not a man who simply gives his support to anyone who talks a good game.
Show me your character by your deeds and I will support you. And when Trump did, Ted Cruz supported him.
What’s wrong with that?
On Immigration, you can read Ted Cruz’s stance here:
http://www.ontheissues.org/2016/Ted_Cruz_Immigration.htm
He was and still is for building a border wall. Ted Cruz proposed using assets seized from El Chapo to fund the border wall.
And when push came to shove, Ted Cruz actually took Trump to task for suggesting giving young undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship, a day after President Donald Trump said he was open to the idea as part of immigration legislation being negotiated in Congress.
See here:
Regarding his providing a poison pill so a bill wouldn’t pass, hey what about Trump? He proposed a path to citizenship for 1.8 Million illegals. FReepers calls this a bluff ( AKA a poison pill by another name ). Well, where’s the consistency? Is Trump serious about it or is he not?
Firstly, whether Cruz’s amendment to the gang of 8’s immigration proposal was indeed a “poison pill” meant to kill the immigration bill, which the Texas senator’s campaign now contends. That is unequivocally true, so point goes to Cruz.
The bipartisan group of eight senators — including battle-tested veterans and relative newcomers like Rubio — painstakingly negotiated a delicate compromise in early 2013 that would overhaul every corner of the U.S. immigration system, including a 13-year pathway to citizenship for millions here illegally.
Cruz’s amendment — which called for stripping out a pathway to citizenship, but keeping a path for legalization — would have done precisely that.
The night before each Senate Judiciary Committee markup, senior Gang of Eight aides would huddle to scour through each of the amendments that were teed up for the following day, determining which proposals would be palatable and which would be unacceptable. This strategy was meant to ensure the core elements of the Gang of Eight deal would stay intact (the four members of the Gang who sat on the Judiciary Committee would vote in a bloc, usually with the rest of the committee Democrats, to vote down potential deal-killers).
“This one was one that clearly we all had to oppose because it went to the core of the deal,” recalled an aide to a Senate Democrat during the 2013 negotiations. “It could’ve unraveled the whole deal.”
Sure, Cruz himself never called it a “poison pill” at the time. But no senator refers to his own proposal as a poison pill, even if it plainly is. The Gang of Eight never considered Cruz as “gettable,” and it was well-known at the time that Cruz was never going to vote for the bill and was in fact, trying to kill it.
And need I remind you of Cruz’s practically lone crusade to stop Obamacare from becoming law ( causing a government shutdown in the process and earning him the ire of both Democrats and members of his own party, yes, John McCain included ).
So, your point on Ted Cruz not being tough on immigration and not being conservative and his only talking conservative because it is election season does not convince.
To compare him to John McCain who has shown his true colors in his last years in the Senate is totally inaccurate.
RE: Can you believe the guy didn’t renounce that Canadian citizenship a long long time ago. 2015, and he had either declared or was close to it.
Because there was no pressing need to do it. One could be very busy doing other things that this would simply not be a priority at all.
Did Ted Cruz ever use his Canadian Citizenship to garner personal gain?
RE: He is an opportunist and his fealty to the Constitution lasts right up to where it says he can’t be President.
You have not shown that to be true to say the least.
And of course you seem to ignore the flaws of Donald Trump himself.
I could say that I dislike the antics of Trump and his hypocrisy on so many things. But I’ll be damned if :
1) I don’t support him over the Democrat alternative.
2) I don’t support him when he does what is right.
3) I don’t stay vigilant and personally invest my defense on him when I believe he is in the wrong.
We ought to do the same for ANY politician ( and yes, that includes Ted Cruz ).
Why do you bother responding to folks regarding Ted.
They tell you the truth, and you say it doesn’t matter.
Ted does whatever the sam hell he pleases, and you defend him for it.
Ted is not a Conservative like most other Conservatives. If you think this man is a Conservative, you’re willing to lower your standards to the point where he looks pretty danged good.
I am not.
Go pester someone else who will swallow what your peddling. I won’t stoop to that level.
It is self evident that someone born with multiple nationalities is not naturally an American.
That is precisely who the founders were excluding.
Anwar Al-Awlaki’s kids born in Yemen to one citizen parent are as eligible to be President as Ted Cruz.
RE: Why do you bother responding to folks regarding Ted.
My question to you is this -— WHY DO YOU BASH TED CRUZ IN A THREAD THAT SHOWS HIM SUPPORTING TRUMP’s CONSERVATIVE POLICIES?
I believe Ted Cruz is a conservative BASED ON HIS SENATE RECORD.
He is not perfect but, hey, I’ll take him over any run of the mill Republican. And if it boils down to him vs. any Democrat, NO HESITATION AT ALL — I’ll vote for him hands down.
If you think he isn’t conservative, why not recommend someone to primary him in 2018?
AS for pestering someone, why not follow your own advise?
And the Cruz camp put out a picture of Melania designed to paint her as a tramp. We can play this game all day or we can let the past be the past.
RE: It is self evident that someone born with multiple nationalities is not naturally an American.
Nope. Accident of birth does not make someone whose mother is American and who never had to go through naturalization a non-natural born citizen.
A “natural born citizen” is a person who has citizenship status at birth rather than as a result of a legal naturalization process after birth.
In a 2015 Harvard Law Review article, “On the Meaning of ‘Natural Born Citizen,” Neal Katyal and Paul Clement (former Solicitors-General in, respectively, the Obama and George W. Bush admininistrations), explain that British law explicitly used the term “natural born” to describe children born outside the British empire to parents who were subjects of the Crown. Such children were deemed British by birth, “Subjects … to all Intents, Constructions and Purposes whatsoever.”
Congress later changed the law, making it easier for one American-citizen parent to pass birthright citizenship to his or her child, regardless of whether the non-American parent ever resided in the United States. But even if the more demanding 1790 law had remained in effect, Cruz would still be a natural born citizen. His mother, Eleanor Elizabeth Darragh Wilson, is an American citizen born in Delaware; his native-Cuban father, Rafael Bienvenido Cruz, was a legal resident of the U.S. for many years before Ted was born.
As Katyal and Clement observe, changes in the law after 1790 clarified that children born of a single American-citizen parent outside the United States are natural born American citizens “subject to certain residency requirements.” Those residency requirements have changed over time.
You may want to re-litigate this all you want, but it has been litigated in the Supreme Courts of several states and in each state the decision was UNANIMOUS — Ted Cruz QUALIFIES
You have no evidence that Ted Cruz was responsible for naked Melania ad.
Cruz did not send out the picture. It was an anti-Trump super PAC.
Super PACs have one major restriction: They can’t coordinate their efforts with a candidate’s official campaign, which is restricted in its spending.
If Cruz did arrange for the ad under the auspices of the super PAC, it would be a serious violation of federal law.
Why did Trump not sue for violation?
In a 2015 Harvard Law Review article, “On the Meaning of ‘Natural Born Citizen,” Neal Katyal and Paul Clement (former Solicitors-General in, respectively, the Obama and George W. Bush admininistrations),
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Written by people with a vested interest in altering the meaning of natural born citizen.
RE: Written by people with a vested interest in altering the meaning of natural born citizen.
Yep, when you can’t go to the logic of the argument, you attack the person(s). Good ad hominem right there.
You might as well attack the courts of every single state that ruled Cruz eligible.
I’ll be jumping in with both feet on Ted Cruz threads, because he is a charlatan.
Just because you won’t admit to what he is, that doesn’t make him not what he is.
You can believe anything you like.
I’m encouraging folks to vote for Ted against the Democrat, but that’s not going to stop me for outing him here so folks know it’s on the record.
I’m not sure why you compare him favorably to other Republicans, when I reveal six or so things that he had waffled on. None of that matters to you. The truth doesn’t matter to you because you became politically infatuated with Ted. You have stars in your eyes and blinders on.
I’m sure the good people of Texas have many others who actually are Conservative down there. Why do I have to help you folks out?
I warned Arizona of McCain to crickets.
I am warning you of Ted to raspberries.
RE: I’ll be jumping in with both feet on Ted Cruz threads, because he is a charlatan.
Just because you won’t admit to what he is, that doesn’t make him not what he is.
________________________
I can’t admit it because you have not shown this to be true.
What in his record shows he is a charlatan? After Trump was elected, he has been nothing but supportive of ALL his conservative policies ( see all the 7 things he presented in this thread ). How is that being a charlatan?
If he were a charlatan, he would be like John McCain, talking about repealing Obamacare and then when push came to shove VOTED TO maintain it.
You can warn me about John McCain and I’ll listen because I have eyes to see and read. You can warn me about Ted Cruz all you like but unless you can show me where in his record he has substantially deviated from being a conservative from immigration to healthcare to defense to taxes to abortion to state rights to LGBT issues, you can’t prove that he is a McCain.
One more word about being infatuated with Ted Cruz (your words, not mine) .... I am infatuated with NO ONE. I am not personally invested in anyone because I do not personally know any one of them. People can disappoint.
I only look at their performance and policies.
The price of freedom is eternal vigilance and no one, not Cruz, not Trump deserves our letting our guard down.
I did show it to be true, so I’ll cut you have at that lie.
RE: I did show it to be true, so I’ll cut you have at that lie.
Where did you show this to be true? Every single item you presented has an alternative and more reasonable explanation.
Wrong. Again you are lying.
Tell me what the great spin on Ted’s sage advise about illegal immigrants prior to GW being sworn into office.
U. S. Citizens did want action then, when some 20 million fewer illegal immigrants were on U. S. soil.
Ted also coached Bush to discuss the issue in terms of separating families, to capitalize on the “AWWWWWW” factor. That is a Leftist ploy.
There old Ted was coaching Bush to go against our wishes, when we had waited eight long years to get relief from Leftist views.
Let me see you spin that.
RE: Tell me what the great spin on Ted’s sage advise about illegal immigrants prior to GW being sworn into office.
You are harping on what happened long before Ted Cruz was Senator. Should we harp on Donald Trump’s affairs and bawdy sexual remarks long before he ran for President?
Should we harp on Trump’s hypocrisy when he attacks companies for not hiring available American workers when he himself hired over 70 overseas workers for Mar A lago?
Or are you going to concede that PEOPLE CAN CHANGE after they reconsider their previous stance?
Is that a spin or is that a fact?
Selective outrage is what I call your remarks. You turn a blind eye to what Trump did in the past while nit picking on Ted Cruz’s statement long before he was elected Senator.
I am not interested in what Ted Cruz believed decades ago. I am interested in what he is doing NOW. Just as I am not interested in what Trump said in 2003, 2004 or 2005. I am interested in what Trump is DOING NOW.
So Ted going to the border and handing out Teddy Bears to illegal alien children a few years back makes you believe he has changed?
The point is, Ted has been.declared a solid Conservitive at all times.
He wasn’t and still isn’t
As late as 2016 he didn’t give a rat’s ass if Hillary Clinton became president or not.
None of Trump’s supporters have made the claim Trump has always been a Conservative.
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