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Video and Audio Title: Ted Cruz does fantastic in CNBC interview Below are a few video clips as well as the transcript from Ted Cruzs latest interview with CNBCs John Harwood. After having watched and read all of it, I must say that Cruz did an excellent job refuting the liberal nonsense and making his case for what he believes. He even weighed in on Social Security and did a masterful job with it. Watch and read (transcripts DO NOT correspond to the videos so you should watch and read everything): Harwood: First of all, what happened to you in your childhood that you do not like guacamole avocado? Cruz: My Dad grew up with an avocado tree in his backyard. My entire family, my wife and daughters, they love avocado. I may well be allergic. It makes me physically sick. Harwood: You made a comment about how used to like rock music, and then your tastes changed after 9/11. What music did you like? Cruz: I grew up listening to classic rockthe Kinks, Genesis, The Who, Pink Floyd. Saw Pink Floyd in concert in HoustonI think it wouldve been 1988 in the Astrodomewhich was an amazing concert. For everyone trying to read broad political commentary in there, there isnt any. Its just simply I had the reaction (after 9/11) that I said, I like how countrys responding. And so I shifted over and started listening to country. Harwood: The first president of your adulthood was a Texan, George H. W. Bush. What is your evaluation of his presidency now? Cruz: I think he did an effective job when it came to managing the demise of the Soviet Union. He was the right person at the right time. Domestically, I disagree with what he did. When you tell the American people, Read my lips. No new taxes, that should mean no new taxes. That was a mistake. And its a mistake that cost him the election. Harwood: You worked for his son. Was he right to expand Medicare to cover prescription drugs? Cruz: That was a policy fight I was not engaged in at the time. Ill tell you what wasnt right. When George W. Bush entered office, the national debt was $5 trillion. When he left, it was $10 trillion. I think the administration spent too much money. Now, I also think youve got to give George W. Bush some real credithe showed remarkable courage in the beginning of the second term taking on Social Security reform and personal accounts. It was the right thing to do. Sadly, congressional Republicans ran to the hills and abandoned him. Harwood: A third Texas president, L.B.J., created Medicare in the mid-60s. Your hero Ronald Reagan campaigned vigorously against that, saying it would lead to socialized medicine, would end liberty in the United States. Who was right: L.B.J. or Reagan? Cruz: Its not worth tilting at windmills. I dont know. I wasnt alive then. What I do know is that today, we have got to preserve and reform Medicare. There is a broad, universal consensus that Medicare is a fundamental bulwark of our society. Look, its one thing to have asked 50 years ago should we have created it. Its another thing when you have a generation of seniors who paid into it 30, 40, 50 years who have been made promises. We need to honor those promises. Harwood: You announced your campaign at Liberty University. Youre appealing to Libertarians. The Libertarian Party platform in 2012 calls for Social Security to be phased out. Are they wrong as a matter of philosophy? Cruz: Oh, I understand why they call for that. But I dont agree with them. What I would like to see is several things. Number one, for those on Social Security or near retirement, no changes whatsoever. Honor the commitments. But for younger people, people in my generation, we should gradually increase the retirement age. Secondly we need to change the rate of growth of Social Security benefits so they match inflation rather than exceed inflation. Those two reforms on their own take Social Security from bankruptcy into solvency. But the third piece, and its what Bush fought for, is personal accounts. I think it is transformative to allow younger workers to put a portion of their taxes into a personal account that they own, that they control, and that they can pass onto their heirs. Harwood: I read an anecdote that said you asked a friend at Harvard Law School her IQ, and then when she didnt know her IQ, asked her SAT score. What was that about? Cruz: That was a silly story that appeared in a magazine. I have no recollection of ever having had any such conversation. So, I cant respond. Harwood: And the idea that you wouldnt study with anybody who didnt go to Harvard, Yale, and Princeton? Cruz: Now thats just a complete lie. Its actually the same magazine, which was one of the more noxious hatchet jobs. The facts are, my study group consisted of three people: My college roommate, who did go to Princeton with me, and one other fellow named Jeff who went to Northwestern. So not only is that claim a lie, but we actually didnt have anyone in the study group who did go to Harvard or Yale. Its a purely made-up lie. But it gets repeated on the internet all the time because its the sort of thing that even if its not true, people want it to be true. Harwood: When I asked a couple of other campaigns, What would you ask him if you were me? they said, Ask him to name his biggest accomplishment. And the reason they said that was, He doesnt have any. What is your yardstick for when youre succeeding, as opposed to tilting at windmills, getting publicity, all that? Cruz: What I have endeavored to do in my time in the Senate is to stand up and lead on the great issues of the day. People say, Well, gosh, you havent succeeded in repealing Obamacare. That is true. We havent succeeded yet. But any student of military history knows that great wars are typically not won in a single skirmish. Although we did not defeat Obamacare and take it down in October of 2013, I believe that fight set the predicate. I think we built the foundation for repealing Obamacare. Harwood: Youve said a few things that dont necessarily comport with the facts, like, 125,000 I.R.S. agents, send em to the border. Theyve only got 25,000 agents or something like. Youve talked about the job-killing nature of Obamacare. Were adding jobs at a very healthy clip right now. Why shouldnt somebody listen to you and say, The guyll just say anything doesnt have to be true? Cruz: There is a game that is played by left-wing editorial writers. Its this new species of yellow journalism called politi-fact. Colloquially I was referring to all the employees as agents. That particular stat is in a joke I used. So, theyre literally fact-checking a joke. I say that explicitly tongue in cheek. The second point is more significant. You talked about the job creation that has occurred. The simple reality is millions of Americans are hurting right now under the Obama economy. Yes, some jobs are being created, but not nearly as many have been destroyed. The rich, the top 1% today earn a higher share of our income than any year since 1928. Big business does great with big government. It gets in bed with big government. Median wages have stagnated. So, if youre a single mom waiting tables, if youre a teenage immigrant washing dishes like my dad was when he came from Cuba to America, your life under the Obama economy has gotten harder and harder and harder.
Poster Comment: I'm having problems getting the videos to work. Hit the URL to see them: http://therightscoop.com/ted-cruz-does-fantastic-in-cnbc- interview/
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