At Saturday’s Iowa Freedom Summit, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said 2016 must be about “reigniting the miracle of America” and even half-jokingly suggested that the federal government send all of its IRS agents to the U.S.-Mexico border after the agency is abolished.
Cruz, who is seriously considering a 2016 White House run and would resonate with so-called “Teavengelical” voters in the early primary states, said reigniting American exceptionalism and the belief in the miracle of America is “the most important cause that unites us together.”
Cruz said America was built on an “extraordinary miracle” and founded on the belief that rights come from “God Almighty” and not the government. He championed economic growth, defending all of the country’s constitutional rights, and restoring America’s leadership in the world.
After calling for the elimination of taxes and burdensome regulations and the repeal of every word of Obamacare, Cruz called for a simple flat tax and the abolishment of the IRS. Cruz suggested that officials then padlock the IRS building and put “every one of the 100,000 agents on our Southern border.” Cruz said he was making those remarks “somewhat tongue-in-cheek” before noting that if illegal immigrants saw thousands of IRS agents at the border, they would turn back immediately even after having trekked thousand of miles and across the Rio Grande.
In a state where Evangelical voters dominate the GOP caucus, Cruz, as he has always done, emphatically defended religious liberty, declaring that “no liberty has been under assault in recent years than religious liberty.” He mentioned Hobby Lobby and the Little Sisters of the Poor, to name a few cases, and quipped, “If you’re litigating against nuns… you’ve probably done something wrong.”
Should Cruz enter the 2016 race, he and his father Rafael, who is a pastor, would make a dynamic tag team in the state. Cruz told the audience who may not be familiar with his family’s biography about how his father found Jesus Christ after leaving him and his mother to go to Texas while they were in Canada. Cruz said had his father not found Jesus Christ in Houston and then brought the family to America, he would have been raised by a single mother “without the love of my father in the house.”
Saying that “talk is cheap,” Cruz told Iowans who are known for their thorough vetting of candidates to ask 2016 candidates who will be showing up in earnest in the months ahead to “show me where you stood up and fought” if they say they support religious liberty, Israel, life, and marriage and oppose Obamacare, Common Core Obama’s unconstitutional executive amnesty, and the bipartisan Washington establishment.
Noting that Saturday is the 50th anniversary of Winston Churchill’s death, Cruz recalled that Obama sent Churchill’s bust back to the U.K. when he came into office. Cruz said that move “foreshadowed everything that was to come for the next six years.” Cruz said the country is facing threats every bit as ominous as those Churchill faced and Americans need the “clarity of thought and action” that Churchill provided.
He blasted Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for leading from behind on foreign policy. Citing the Paris terror attacks and Obama’s absence at the Paris unity rally, Cruz said that, “you cannot fight and win a war against radical Islamic terrorism if you are unwilling to utter the words, ‘radical Islamic terrorism.'” He also mentioned a bill that he has co-sponsored which would force Americans who join ISIS to forfeit their U.S. citizenship.
Cruz concluded his remarks by saying the Reagan coalition of conservatives, working-class Democrats, and libertarians who “want to be believe again in the miracle of America” must unite again in 2016 to “bring back the shining city on a hill that is the United States of America.”
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.