Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) keynoted the 2014 Conservative Political Action Conference, opening up with “God Bless CPAC.” Previewing an issue he would rail the Democrats over, he joked by telling the crowd that everyone on attendance they will soon get an unwelcome piece of news. “Tomorrow morning each and every one of you are going to be audited by the IRS.”
Cruz ripped the former IRS former official at the heart of the scandal, Lois Lerner, for pleading the Fifth and also the president for telling Bill O’Reilly that there was not a “smidgen of corruption” with the targeting of conservatives.
But it was his forward-looking message and suggestions on how to move the party forward that received the most attention. Senator Ted Cruz underscored the absurdity of the claims made by pundits and the establishment that fighting over ObamaCare and principles isn’t the way to victory, considering the outcome of the last four congressional elections in 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2012.
“In ’06, ’08 and ’12 we put our head down, we stood for nothing and we got walloped. The one election that was a tremendous election was in 2010 when Republicans drew a line in the sand — we said we stand unequivocally against ObamaCare, against bankrupting the country, and we won in a historic tidal wave of an election,” he noted.
“There are a lot of D.C. consultants who say there’s a choice for Republicans to make: We can either choose to keep our head down, to not rock the boat, to not stand for anything, or we can stand for principle. They say if you stand for principle you lose elections. The way to do it — the smart way, the Washington way — is don’t stand against Obamacare, don’t stand against the debt ceiling, don’t stand against nothing. I want to tell you something — that is a false dichotomy.”
He said that conservatives in the Republican Party must define themselves and the party, citing past candidates who didn’t emphasize their principles such as McCain and Dole, who found themselves on Election Day defeated by their opposition.
“When you don’t stand for principle, Democrats celebrate,” he stated, adding that keeping your head in the sand will not accomplish anything but failure.
Cruz offered a radical plan to the youth in attendance, of which the crowd is by majority, despite what the media and Democrats would love to portray. He said if you were trying to construct an agenda that hurt young people, you couldn’t construct an agenda more damaging than the Obama agenda.
Another radical position Senator Ted Cruz suggested in order to win the youth, was the novel concept holding Republicans should “tell the truth,” adding that the Obama Administration “seems to have a little problem with that.”
Senator Cruz mentioned a top ten list of things that would define the Republican Party:
- Abolish the IRS
- Simple Flat Tax
- Expand energy and create high paying jobs
- Expand school choice
- Repeal Dodd Frank
- Audit the Federal Reserve
- Pass a strong balance budget amendment
- Repeal every single word of ObamaCare
- Stop the lawlessness
- End the corruption: eliminating corporate welfare and crony capitalism – if you sever in congress=lifetime ban on lobbying and Term Limits
“All across this country people are waking up,” Senator Ted Cruz added. But in order to inspire them, Cruz held, the activists in the party must work on the areas the Republican Party where principles have been lacking.
