Posted on 06/25/2015 7:53:41 AM PDT by Isara
Sen. Cruz Joins the Mark Levin Show
HOUSTON, Texas — Today, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, joined the Mark Levin Show to discuss his vote against TPA as a result of the latest manifestation of the Washington Cartel.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/VRBXj38Q9-I
Excerpts appear below:
I voted against TPA today and I wrote a long op-ed in Breitbart this morning explaining why. And as you know, I support free trade Im a longtime supporter of free trade. I campaigned on free trade in the state of Texas. However, there were really two things that drove me to oppose TPA today.
The first was something that came out after the first vote on TPA, which is Wikileaks released the text of a portion of the Trade in Services Agreement which explicitly purports to change immigration laws of the signatory countries. Now at the time TPA came up for a vote initially, Jeff Sessions introduced an amendment and I introduced an amendment to add to TPA to make explicit that no trade deal can impact immigration law and that any one that attempted to impact immigration law wouldnt be subject to Fast Track. We didnt get a vote on those amendments.
And based on the subsequent leak of the text of a trade agreement attempting to do just that, I informed leadership that if they wanted my vote on TPA, they needed to pass the Cruz-Sessions amendment to take immigration off the table forever on trade agreements.
The second aspect that led me to vote no was the corrupt deals weve seen that leadership pursued in order to get TPA passed. And in particular is a deal that by all appearances they cut to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank.
Now as you know, Mark, the Export-Import Bank is a classic example of corporate welfare, it is hundreds of billions of dollars of loan guarantees that taxpayers give that benefit primarily a handful of giant corporations. Now, its scheduled to expire on June 30th. And would be a tremendous victory it should be a tremendous victory for Republicans to show were not about cronyism, were not about picking winners and losers, to defend the free market.
Unfortunately, it now appears that Republican leadership cut a deal in order to get TPA through where they agreed to tee up a vote and allow the Export-Import Bank, that corporate welfare, as well. And at the end of the day it was too much so I announced I would vote no and I did vote no today.
I informed leadership that if they publicly, number one, committed to allowing the Export-Import Bank to expire and stay expired to end that corrupt Washington cronyism deal making and number two, if Congress would pass the Cruz and Sessions amendment taking immigration off the table forever in trade agreements that I would support it, but leadership did not accept my offer.
And unfortunately what we see today is another manifestation of what I call the “Washington Cartel.” It is a corruption. It is a cartel of career politicians in both parties in union with the lobbyists on K Street. And its the reason why six of the ten wealthiest counties in America surround Washington, DC. Because this town is all about more and more power and money in Washington, and the working men and women, their lives being made harder and harder. And what we saw today is another example of government of the lobbyists, by the lobbyists, and for the lobbyists, and thats not what Republicans were elected to Congress to do.
Over the TPA stuff Ted Cruz is skating on thin ice for me, but the ice hasn’t broken.... yet...
Jeb Bush and the rest of the RINO candidates are currently living in a cave UNDER the frozen Lake....
its a problem though that u don’t see a manifestation of tyranny in today’s “Free Trade” agreements. You allowed it to pass from the git go thereby allowing this TPP tyranny inside the gate.
I know some bash Cruz here and I was ready to cut him loose with his first TPA vote but the man had the courage to say he was wrong and try to correct it.
Before anyone ventures to tell me that Cruz is just one of them, don’t Because if Ted Cruz is truly just another wolf in sheep’s clothing, if he really is one of the elite waiting to come out, we’re lost. We have to put our faith in someone and we have to back them 100%.
It’s frightening to see how big the left’s forces are but surely we can at least band together and keep them from crowning Bush in the primaries. I know they’ll be happy with either Bush, Kasich, Rubio, or Christie so the left’s field is also spread out in a sense. But we can beat them if we line up behind a single candidate and I think Cruz is the man. We have a fight ahead but if we can nominate Cruz, I think we can win.
Today we have the horrible scoutscare decision, will actually try to overturn this law? Ted Cruz that’s who.
On this terrible day thanks to SCOTUS, you have made me feel optimistic and I thank you for that.
God Bless Ted Cruz!
You’re welcome.
But we need to get together on this, find a good candidate to challenge Boehner, setup money bombs for conservatives, defeat John McCain big time. And most important, pull together for Ted Cruz. We can do all this if we work together.
Ted Cruz saved himself with me by waking up at the last minute and realizing he’d been had. I think Jeff Sessions woke him up.
IMO this country is likely beyond saving in its current form. But the only two people with the force of personality to make any significant difference are Ted Cruz and Donald Trump. Anybody else and you might as well start practicing saying President Clinton.
Amen...and, amen ;-)
I agree.
The mere fact that the Senate votes on secret treaties and bills is the most disturbing of all. This denies We the People the right to see the bills and treaties and give our input to our representatives. They are not our Masters, they represent We the People, yet, we cannot see what they are voting on??
Are we going to fight for our God-given freedom or to join our enemies in destroying our candidate?
Well yes, yes we are.
Now you know how women feel after calling 911 just in time for the operator hear them being murdered.
You are half right, guess which half.
Yeah, I know. *hangsheadindispair*
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