Ted Cruz Comments
(Time allowed his seven comments)
From the ninth debate in South Carolina, Saturday
13, 2016, with Republican candidates.
CRUZ: Justice Scalia was a legal
giant. He was somebody that I knew for 20 years. He was a brilliant
man. He was faithful to the Constitution. He changed the arc of American legal
history. And I'll tell you, his passing tonight, our prayers are with his
family, with his wife, Maureen, who he adored, his nine children, his 36
grandkids.
CRUZ: But it underscores the stakes of this
election. We are one justice away from a Supreme Court that will strike down
every restriction on abortion adopted by the states. We are one justice away
from a Supreme Court that will reverse the Heller decision, one of Justice
Scalia's seminal decisions that upheld the Second Amendment right to keep and
to bear arms.
We are one justice
away from a Supreme Court that would undermine the religious liberty of
millions of Americans -- and the stakes of this election, for this year, for
the Senate, the Senate needs to stand strong and say, "We're not going to
give up the U.S. Supreme Court for a generation by allowing Barack Obama to
make one more liberal appointee."
And then for the state
of South Carolina, one of the most important judgments for the men and women of
South Carolina to make is who on this stage has the background, the principle,
the character, the judgment, and the strength of resolve to nominate and
confirm principled constitutionalists to the court? That will be what I will do
if I'm elected president. (APPLAUSE)
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DICKERSON: Senator
Cruz, you talked about the first Gulf War as being a kind of model for your
focused, and determined effort to go after ISIS. But, there were 700,000 ground
troops as a part of that, and you don't have a ground component to your plan.
Why?
CRUZ: Well, we need to focus on what the
objective is, you know? You're question about the first three questions you
would ask in this Situation Room. I think it is a problem if the president,
commander in chief we've elected does not have the experience and background to
understand the threats facing this country coming in on day one.
If you look at the
threats facing this country, the single gravest threat, national security
threat, is the threat of a nuclear Iran. That's why I've pledged on day one to
rip to shreds this Iranian nuclear deal, and anyone that thinks you can
negotiate Konami does not understand the nature of Komani.
When it comes to
ISIS, we've got to have a focused objective. One of the problems of Barack
Obama and Hillary Clinton's foreign policy, and sadly, too many establishment
Republicans in Washington, is they focus on issues unrelated to protecting this
country. They focus on nation building, they focus on toppling governments to
promote democracy, and it ends up undermining our national security.
Now, with regard to
ISIS, we need a commander in chief that sets the objective we will utterly
defeat them because they have declared war. They've declared a jihad on us.
Now, what do we
need...
(BELL RINGING)
CRUZ: ... To carry that out. We need
overwhelming air power, we need to arm the Kurds who can be our boots on the
ground, and if ground troops are necessary than we should employ them, but it
shouldn't be politicians demonstrating political toughness. It should be
military expert judgement carrying out the objectives set out by the commander
in chief.
(APPLAUSE)
CRUZ: We have Kurds in both Iraq and Syria.
They are fighting ISIS right now. They are winning victories right now. ISIS is
using American military equipment they've seized in Iraq. And the Obama
administration refuses to arm the Kurds, the Peshmerga, the fighting forces who
have been longtime allies.
We ought to be arming
them and letting them fight. Now if we need to embed Special Forces to direct
our overwhelming air power, if it is required to use ground troops to defeat
ISIS, we should use them, but we ought to start with using our incredible air
power advantage.
The first Persian
Gulf War, we launched 1,100 air attacks a day. Today we're launching between 15
and 30. We're not using the tools we have and it's because the
commander-in-chief is not focused on defeating the enemy.
(APPLAUSE)
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CRUZ: Well, let me say it at the outset
that everyone here understands - everyone understands that how - that the
middle class has been left behind in the last seven years of the Obama economy
and we've got to bring jobs back. We've got to get people back to work. We've
got to get wages going up again. We've got to get people moving from part time
work to full time work.
We all agree on that
but it's not going to be solved with magic pixie dust. It's just going to be
solved by declaring into the air, "let there be jobs." We actually
have to understand the principles that made America great in the first place.
Now, where do you get
economic growth? If you look at cause and effect over our nation's history,
every time we lessen the burden of Washington on small business owners, on job
creators, we see incredible economic growth. You do that through tax reform and
regulatory reform.
My tax plan - typical
family of four , first 36,000 dollars you earn, you pay nothing in taxes - no
income taxes, no pay role taxes, no nothing. Above ten percent, everyone pays
the same simple flat ten percent income rate, it's flat and fair. You can fill
out your taxes on a postcard and we abolish the IRS. If you want to see the
post card, I've got it on my website.
…
CRUZ: Now Major, the business flat tax that
is in my tax plan is not a VAT. A VAT
in Europe is a sales tax. The business flat tax is not a sales tax, it is
a tax of 16 percent opposed fairly and evenly across the board on all business.
One of the things
that's critical is we're doing that in conjunction with abolishing the
corporate income tax, with abolishing the Obamacare taxes, with abolishing the
payroll taxes which are the biggest taxes paid by most working Americans and
with abolishing the death tax which is cruel and unfair. And you asked about
economic growth, the non-partisan tax foundation estimated a simple flat tax that
would product 4.9 million new jobs, it would increase capital investment by 44
percent and would lift everyone's income by double digits.
That's how you turn
the country around, not just hoping and praying for it but implementing
policies that work.
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CRUZ: Well, you know, your question
highlights a sharp difference on immigration on this stage. You know, in a
Republican primary, everyone talks tough on immigration. Everyone is against
illegal immigration in a Republican primary. But as voters, we've been burned
over and over again by people that give us a great campaign speech and they
don't walk the walk.
There are sharp
differences on amnesty. If you look at the folks on this stage, when Harry Reid
and Chuck Schumer and establishment Republicans were leading the fight to pass
a massive amnesty plan, I stood with Jeff Sessions and Steve King and the
American people and led the fight to defeat that amnesty plan.
(APPLAUSE)
STRASSEL: So would
you -- would you use the addresses?
CRUZ: Now that moment...
STRASSEL: Would you
pick them up?
CRUZ: That moment was what Reagan would
call "a time for choosing." When it comes to deciding which side of
the line you're on, the Rubio-Schumer amnesty plan... (BOOING)
CRUZ: ... apparently supported by the donor
class, which is why Washington supported it. The Rubio-Schumer amnesty plan
passed the Senate and it was on the verge of passing the House.
House leadership
intended to take it up and pass it with the Democrats overruling most of the
Republicans. And the question for anyone on illegal immigration is where were
you in that fight? Where did you stand?
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… Cruz and Rubio
argue. Cruz says he has support of
Levin/Limbaugh/Sessions. …
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CRUZ: I think it is a very important
question because the people who have been hurt the most in the Obama economy
had been the most vulnerable. It's been young people. It's been Hispanics. It's
been African-Americans. It's been single moms. We have the lowest percentage of
Americans working today in any year since 1977.
And the sad reality
is big government, massive taxes, massive regulation, doesn't work. What we
need to do instead is bring back booming economic growth, let -- small
businesses are the heart of the economy. Two-thirds of all new jobs come from
small businesses. If we want to lift people out of poverty -- you know, I think
of these issues from the perspective of my dad.
My dad fled Cuba in
1957. He was just 18. He couldn't speak English. He had nothing. He had $100 in
his underwear. And he washed dishes making 50 cents an hour and paid his way
through school. Today, my dad is a pastor. He travels the country preaching the
gospel.
Now, I think about
all of these issues. How would it impact my dad when he was washing dishes? If
we had Obamacare in place right now, the odds are very high my father would
have been laid off because it's teenaged kids like my dad who have gotten laid
off. If he didn't get laid off, the odds are high he would have had his hours
forcibly reduced to 28, 29 hours a week.
We need to lift the
burdens on small businesses so you have jobs and we need welfare reform that
gets people off of welfare and back to work.
(APPLAUSE)
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DICKERSON:
[Trump and Cruz, why don’t you two argue for the camera?]
CRUZ: [Trump supports Planned Parenthood;
etc.]
TRUMP: [Not for Abortion—He lies and is not
liked.]
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CLOSING: Senator
Cruz, your closing statement?
CRUZ: South Carolina, you have a critical
choice to make. Our country literally hangs
in the balance.
Do you want
another Washington deal maker who will do business as usual, cut
deals with the democrats, grow government, grow debt and give up our
fundamental liberties? Or do you want a conservative, a proven conservative
that will stand and fight with you each and every day?
Listen, repealing Obamacare is not going to be easy.
Passing a simple flat tax that abolishes
the IRS is not going to be easy but if we stand with the American people
we can do it.
And today, we saw
just how great the stakes are, two branches of government hang in the balance.
Not just the presidency but the Supreme Court. If we get this wrong, if
we nominate the wrong candidates, the Second Amendment, life, marriage,
religious, liberty - everyone of those hangs in the balance.
My little girls are here. I don't want
to look my daughters in the eyes and say, "we lost their liberties."
Who do you know will defend The Constitution and Bill of Rights? And as a
Commander in Chief, who do you know will stand up to our enemies as the clam,
steady, deliberate, strength to defeat our enemies, to secure our borders and to
keep America safe.
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