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Posted on 05/28/2015 6:49:42 AM PDT by SoConPubbie
ATHENS — There were chicken and fish on their plates, and Republican presidential contender Ted Cruz added some red meat as he roused a Georgia Republican Party convention crowd at The Classic Center in downtown Athens on Friday night.
Cruz, a first-term U.S. senator from Texas who announced his run for the GOP presidential nomination in late March, touted himself as a true conservative, someone outside the Republican mainstream who can raise money and draw crowds, and who is part of “a new generation that is stepping forward” in the Republican Party.
Alternately serious and playing for laughs — which he received in abundance — Cruz told the hundreds of people who attended Friday’s GOP dinner that “the stakes have never been higher. If we spend another four or eight years on the same path, I believe we will do irreparable damage to our country.”
Espousing tax reform and regulatory reform as keys to boosting growth and opportunity in the United States, Cruz called for “a simple flat tax” on income that would “let every American fill out their taxes on a postcard, and when we do that, we need to abolish the IRS.”
Then, jokingly suggesting that the 90,000 IRS workers who would be out of a job should be put to work guarding America’s southern border, Cruz added, “Just imagine that the first thing you see [if you’re crossing the border from Mexico into the United States] is 90,000 IRS agents. You’d turn around and run home, too.”
Continuing his joking, Cruz riffed on the federal government’s surveillance programs, telling the crowd, “Please leave your cellphones on. I want President Obama to hear everything we’re saying here tonight.”
Cruz used his speech to run through a number of policy positions, from repealing Obamacare to defending constitutional rights — the right to bear arms, due process, search and seizure limitations and limits on federal power got special mention — to abandoning the Common Core curriculum for the nation’s public schools, and said acting on those issues “has got to be a grassroots movement.”
“Washington is fundamentally broken,” he said. “I’ve been there and I’ve seen it. … The answer will come from the American people.”
Cruz ended his speech with a rafter-shaking crescendo, bringing the crowd to its feet with his high-volume exhortation, “We are rising up to save that shining city on a hill that is the United States of America.”
Cruz was one of three national headliners for the state GOP convention. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, widely believed to be considering a run at the Republican presidential nomination, addressed a breakfast crowd, and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, a declared GOP presidential contender, spoke to convention delegates Friday afternoon.
Athens Banner Herald
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Ted Cruz Ping! I hope that is a figurative statement. LOL
I wish he would upgrade his stump speech. That line about putting IRS agents on the southern border is tiresome and wasn’t that good to begin with
Did you check the date on the article?
“I wish he would upgrade his stump speech. That line about putting IRS agents on the southern border is tiresome and wasn’t that good to begin with”
It’s my favorite line - maybe he stole it from me.
I’ve been posting this for awhile:
WHEN THE FAIR TAX PUTS THE IRS AGENTS OUT OF WORK - SEND THEM TO THE BORDER - THEY’RE ALREADY TRAINED TO BE MEAN
Take it from an accountant, most people can’t even imagine how monstrous and oppressive the IRS is, and how much the current tax code strangles our economy.
It punishes productivity, and fails to capture any revenue from the illegal aliens and illegal activities like drugs and prostitution because most of them don’t report their income, but they buy stuff, so with the Fair Tax, they would start paying a share.
Agree! Cruz was much more serious during his roll-out event at Liberty. I’ve heard this new speech a couple of times and he has become a bit more Shecky Greene than Ronald Reagan. I guess he’s trying to work on his likability in order to overcome the dour, mean-spirited, Joe McCarthy-like caricature painted by the leftist MSM. He needs to pleasantly stand up for a conservative governing vision and minimize the “stand-up” comedy routine or he risks not being taken seriously.
Did you notice the picture of Cruz used in the article? He looks very angry. This is the image the media will try to convey about Cruz...angry, mean-spirited Republican.
Hard to do that with Walker. He’s got that Tom Hanks ne’er do wrong look.
I just did.
FairTax ping!
The issue is FReedom!
We will NEVER be FRee so long as we have an income tax and the IRS!
Find out how we can replace the income tax with the FairTax and abolish the IRS at https://www.fairtax.org.
Not near as old as tax on a postcard, which will never happen.
Shades of Phil Graham.
I understand Cruz is still in the introducing himself to voters mode. He has probably staked out positions (however vague) on more issues than any other would-be candidate. So much so, that he has left a lot of nuggets for the hostile media to chew upon. You have to know that he has prepared himself well enough to let his adversaries to take the bait.
LOL! Oh, good grief! I was kidding too. ;-p
;-) Of course. Can’t find my grudges today,
so I won’t hold one against you.
Stinkin’ grudges! Always wandering off.
Senator Cruz is a co-sponsor of the FairTax Act, S.155. It is a 23% consumption tax, levied at the point of retail sale. The IRS is defunded as of 2019, IIRC.
Thank you for your support!
Check out https://www.fairtax.org to find out how you can help us get this done!
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