Applause and cheers greeted 2016 presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz as he took the stage at the North Carolina Republican Convention.
Opting to move around instead of speaking from behind a podium, Cruz sounded Reaganesque as he spoke on three main points of economic growth, defending our Constitutional rights and restoring America’s position in the world.
Cruz’s speech was fluid, fast-moving, had the crowd laughing and on their feet applauding multiple times. The speech lasted just over 40 minutes — and he did it all without a teleprompter.
Senator Cruz warmed up the crowd by thanking them for retiring Senator Kay Hagan and electing Senator Thom Tillis in her place. The Senator then transitioned into a ‘central issue’ of his campaign, which is “reigniting the promise of America.” and the fundamental idea that our kids will ‘have it better’ than we did.
On economic growth, Cruz pressed the need for tax reform by scrapping the current tax code and adopting a flat-tax. Cruz added that regulation reform was also needed and cracked a joke, that was captured by TWC News, about firing the 90,000 IRS workers and putting them on the border.
“There are about 90,000 employees at the IRS. We need to padlock that building and take everyone of them and put them on our Southern border,” he said.
While some of Sen. Cruz’s speech could be considered tongue in cheek, some delegates say they appreciated the honesty.
TWC News did not include the punchline of the joke. “If the first thing you see is 90,000 IRS agents,” said Cruz, “you’d turn around and go home too,”. The audience rippled with applause and laughter.
Obamacare, which the Senator has long opposed, was also made mention of. “We should repeal every word of Obamacare.”, the Senator said. Cruz noted Obamacare as being a jobs killer and the recent propose rate hikes by insurance companies, including the 27% hike proposed North Carolina’s Blue Cross Blue Shield.
“I will always, always, always stand and fight for religious freedom!”, exclaimed Cruz while speaking about defending the Constitution. Senator Cruz also defended the Second Amendment and the 10th, slamming the Obama administration on the latter.
Unlike Governor Walker, Senator Cruz’s comments on education almost immediately went to Common Core. Cruz cited the need for the states to ‘repeal every word of Common Core’; stressing the need to get rid of the Dept. of Education and return to state and local control of education.
On Cruz’s final leg of the speech, he turned towards the failed foreign policy of the Obama administration, condemning the administration’s negotiations with Iran. Cruz said we should not be allowing Iran to obtain nuclear weapons.
Senator Cruz criticized President Obama’s broken relationship with Israel and for not meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu. Cruz said, “Imagine a President standing unapologetically next to the Prime Minister of Israel.” This statement received the biggest and loudest standing ovation of the afternoon.
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