← The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
Shutdown Precipice & Dems Holding Military Hostage-LIVE from the Texas Youth Summit
00:42:59
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- [00:02]
Ben Ferguson
Welcome. It is Verdict live on the road at the Texas Youth Summit, Ben Ferguson. With you is Senator Ted Cruz. Senator, I feel like this is a hostage video. You are in Washington, held hostage right now because of a looming government shutdown. We know that the president, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, one of your best friends, they're excited about this shutdown. Explain to everybody what's going to happen with a shutdown and how it's playing out.
- [00:39]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, for this hostage video, I will try to refrain from blinking SOS with my eyelids, but, but, but I am indeed trapped in a lunatic asylum. I'm in Washington, D.C. my plan had been to be back there with you. I've been to the Texas Youth Summit multiple years. It's a fantastic gathering. Let me say to all the young men, all the young women who are there who are standing up, who are speaking out, who are engaging and making a difference, making a difference in your community, making a difference in Texas, making a difference in the country, thank you for your leadership. It is a great event. It's why I always love coming. But I'm right now stuck in DC because we are hours away from yet another government shutdown. And so if, if Congress doesn't act, and I think the chances of Congress acting are very, very low, I think it is extremely likely that we'll have a shutdown. If Congress doesn't act by midnight tonight, then at 12:01am funding for the federal government will end. And I think we're likely to have an extended government shutdown. I think it's going to last a while.
- [01:43]
Ben Ferguson
Let's talk about the politics of a shutdown. Each side has to have a calculation. They have these conversations who wins, who loses and how this is going to be affecting their party. What is a shutdown? You've been through a couple of these. What are your concerns? And also there's some civility that should be in these shutdowns that certain people get paid. And yet there are good men and women that protect and defend this country who Democrats seem to be wanting to play politics with them not getting a paycheck. That really bothers me.
- [02:15]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, there's a constraint of two things. One, a basic constitutional principle that the federal government cannot spend money unless Congress has appropriated it. So, so what's causing this shutdown is the fiscal year. The federal fiscal year ends today, September 30th. And that's where the, the appropriations run out, which means you need new appropriations. There are typically three ways that, that Congress will appropriate. One, you can pass individual appropriation bills for particular, particular government programs or cabinet agencies. That's, that's called regular order. That's the way it used to happen routinely. That happens very rarely. Now a second way to do it is you can pass what's called an omnibus, which is basically taking a bunch of those appropriation bills, combining them all together and passing them as one gigantic multi trillion dollar spending bill. That happens with some regularity. The third way is you can pass what's called a cr, a continuing resolution. And a continuing resolution basically just kicks the can down the road. It typically extends government spending for a finite period of time. So you could have a one week cr, a two week cr, a 30 day cr, a 90 day cr. It just depends on what the sides negotiate. If none of those get passed, and I think none of those are the most likely outcome today is none of them will get passed today, then what happens is federal government spending stops. But federal workers who are deemed essential workers still have to go to work. So for example, the military, if you're, if you're stationed in harm's way, the military still has to go to work because they're essential workers. Air traffic controllers, everyone who wants to get on an airplane tomorrow, don't worry, you're not going to get on an airplane and discover that no air traffic controllers and planes are just flying. Willy Dilly Air traffic controllers are essential. They, they show up and go to work. And so there's thousands upon thousands of federal workers that are deemed essential who come in and go to work but they don't get paid. They go to work, but they don't get a paycheck. Now in the past and, and also there are programs that are, that are mandatory programs that are benefit programs. Those programs continue. So for example, Social Security and Medicare, the checks people are getting in the mail, those checks keep coming. So, so that part which is a big part of the federal budget, that continues automatically, what stops is discretionary federal spending that is non essential. And if Congress doesn't act today, that will stop at 12:01am tonight.
- [04:57]
Ben Ferguson
You are obviously a huge proponent of fiscal responsibility. I just pulled up on my phone the national debt clock. Right now the national debt's at 30,33 trillion, 121,494,000,000 debt per citizen, highest we've ever seen at 98,667 a person. But not everybody pays taxes. That means right now, debt per U.S. taxpayers, $255,000, $353 and counting. You look at these government shutdowns and the argument is we're trying to fight for more fiscal responsibility. What do Republicans need to do? Because this is at a point where we're bankrupting not just this country, but the future of this country and the kids and the grandkids in this country.
- [05:48]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, look, that's exactly right. I think a shutdown is very, very likely because the incentives of all the players are such that it's just inevitable, that they're just crashing into each other. I think Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer both really want to shut down. They have decided politically it's good for them to have a shutdown. Now why is that? The reason they think it's politically good for Democrats to have a shutdown is inevitably 100 out of 100 times. The media, the, the official parrots for the Democrat Party, blame every shutdown on Republicans. That happens like night, night follows day. Every yapping marionette in the media is going to do that. And so the Democrats are saying, hey, you know, the Biden agenda is going really badly. The border is total chaos, the economy is a mess. We don't want to talk about any of that. Let's have a shutdown instead and have all the media blaming those mean, terrible Republicans for shutting down the government. That's why I think Biden and Schumer want to shut down. On the other hand, in the House, and this is principally a battle between House Republicans and the White House. In the House, Kevin McCarthy is the speaker of the House, but he has just a four vote majority. It's an incredibly narrow majority. What Biden and Schumer are demanding of McCarthy is complete and total surrender. Surrender altogether. Fund every single one of our big government left wing priorities. And if you don't, we'll shut down the government. Kevin can't give in. It is impossible for Kevin to surrender the way Schumer and Biden are demanding, because if Kevin surrenders, his speakership will be over. You will see a House Republican member file what's called a motion to vacate the chair and he'll be voted out as Speaker. And so Kevin cannot politically survive surrendering to Biden and Schumer. Given those dynamics, I don't think Schumer and Biden are going to budge. And I don't think Kevin can give them everything they want. I think we go to a shutdown. And once a shutdown happens, what happens next? Well, it ratchets up pressure. People start discovering things they're not happy about. For example, if there's a shutdown tomorrow, our national parks are Closed. So maybe some of y'all were planning to go to a national park, go hiking in Yellowstone. All of that's closed. When there's a government shutdown, maybe some families coming to Washington D.C. and planning to come to the Smithsonian. If there's a shutdown tomorrow, the museums are all closed. Those tend to be some of the things early on that really tick off people interacting with the government. Now the nightmare for Democrats is you have a government shutdown and the people by and large don't notice. And I'll have to say an awful lot of people, if you're not specifically using some federal asset or activity, you may notice very little is different during a government shutdown. And that's a dangerous lesson. Democrats don't want the American people to learn that. That being said, the breadth of a shutdown varies because often Congress will have passed some appropriations. So in past shutdowns, we've always paid our military. That's what typically happens. And this week I've gone to the Senate floor three different times trying to pay our military now. And in particular, I want to contrast Ben, what happened this week to what happened 10 years ago in 2013. We had a big government shutdown. I was right in the middle of that battle that was over Obamacare. Government was shut down for 16 days, but we paid all of our active duty military. That was actually a bill that passed right at the beginning of the shutdown. It passed unanimously. So it was a Harry Reid Senate, it was a Democrat Senate. 100 to nothing. Paying our military during the shutdown passed the house 435 to nothing. It passed unanimously and Barack Obama signed it into law. So 10 years ago, everyone agreed. All right, if there's a shutdown battle, let's not hold our active duty military hostage. The most recent shutdown was 2019. It was the Schumer shutdown. It lasted 35 days. During those 35 days, Chuck Schumer had a showdown with Donald Trump. Schumer did not want to fund a border wall, did not want to fund additional resources to secure the border. Schumer wants open borders. We had a 35 day shutdown during that period. Congress had passed the appropriations for DoD for the Department of Defense. So that meant our soldiers, our sailors, our airmen, our Marines, and our space force members all got their paychecks, but the Coast Guard did not. The Coast Guard is not under DOD. The Coast Guard is under DHS, the Department of Homeland Security. And so for 34 days, the Coast Guard went with no paychecks. And I went back then in 2019 to the Senate floor to try to pass legislation to say let's treat the Coast Guard fairly. Let's not discriminate against the Coast Guard, let's not treat them like the red haired stepchild of our military. They deserve to be paid just like all of the other branches of the military. And in 2019, Democrat leadership stood up and blocked it, objected to that legislation. And so Coast Guardsmen went for over a month with no paycheck. Fast forward to today, this week. Dan Sullivan, Senator from Alaska, good friend of mine and he's, he's in the Marine Reserves. He's also a colonel in the Marines. Dan and I went to the Senate floor to try to pass a simple straightforward bill. First of all, to pass the bill I authored that says if you pay the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines, you should pay the Coast Guard too. So it was a parody bill. The Democrats stood up and objected. Pat Murray, who's chairman of the appropriation committee, Patty Murray, she, she objected on behalf of Schumer. And what she said is, well, I object because this doesn't mandate that we pay everyone. It just says you treat them equally. And Sullivan and I said okay, great. So we came this week with Sullivan's bill which is pay all of our active duty military, pay our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, coast guardsmen, space force guardians, pay them all. The Democrats objective, they've objected twice. And so tomorrow, if our active duty military loses their paycheck tomorrow, it is because Democrats said two words yesterday on the Senate floor and those two words were I object, that killed the bill.
- [12:25]
Ben Ferguson
What is your gut on Democrats do? Are they going to feel the pressure to do the right thing because you shouldn't hold these people hostage that are protecting and serving. But my gut is they probably say no just because this makes too much sense and they want this to hurt.
- [12:42]
Senator Ted Cruz
They want it to hurt. This week one of the arguments Patty Murray made, she said, well gosh, I want to pay the military, but I want to pay everyone else too. I want to pay all the federal government. And so we need to fund the entire federal government. I made clear, look, there's a 19 year old Marine right now at the DMZ that is facing North Korean machine guns and that's fundamentally different than an ordinary federal worker. And the Democrats view is they care more about the IRS agent coming to harass small businesses in Texans, they care more about the regulators trying to shut down oil and gas in Texas, that they care more about the bureaucrats at the EPA trying to destroy jobs than they do actually, the brave young men and women who defend us. And you know, Ben, it's worth reflecting. What's changed? So listen, 10 years ago, everyone agreed on this. I pointed out repeatedly on the Senate floor, Patty Murray voted for this 10 years ago. Chuck Schumer voted for this 10 years ago. Dick Durbin voted for this 10 years ago. What's changed? And I'll tell you what's changed. When we had this debate on the Senate floor yesterday, I looked up in the gallery, there were no reporters. Completely empty. What has changed is the corrupt corporate media has become so thoroughly corrupt that if you rely on CNN or MSNBC or abc, cbs, NBC for your news, you have no idea that the reason our military is not going to get a paycheck tomorrow is because the Democrats decided to block it to hold them host. And the reason the Democrats do this is they know they'll never be questioned. I point out to reporters, reporters are all running up to me in the Capitol this week and they're, and they're, and they're saying, do you think it's right that those terrible Republicans are going to shut down the government? And I laugh and I say, funny, how come you're not asking if I think it's right that that terrible Chuck Schumer and that terrible Joe Biden are going to shut down the government because they want to continue spending trillions of dollars we don't have. They want to continue driving inflation up to hurt people all across the country. And by the way, because they refuse to do a damn thing to secure the southern border, because they want these open borders and they're willing to shut the government down on it. And I turn to reporters, I say, did you write a story about the Democrats blocking paychecks for our military? They're all like, no. And I'm like, shut up. Why are you talking to me? You are a parrot. You are a hack. You are a propagandist. You lie for a living. And if you want to prove me wrong, go sit down at your little typewriter and type a damn story about what I said and what the Democrats said so that the soldiers back in Washington state know they didn't get a paycheck tomorrow because Patty Murray objected because she thought it was politically advantageous to hold their paychecks hostage.
- [15:34]
Christian Collins
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- [17:12]
Ben Ferguson
This is why I love doing Verdict by the way, because this is the call to action. I think it's clear everyone needs to call their senators, their congressmen and advocate for the pay of our men and women in military. We've had great success center with verdict, changing policy. But this is one of those moments where everybody listening, everybody watching, they need to make sure they call and reach out to their congressmen, senators and say do the right thing.
- [17:40]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well and, and I'll say also right before we started recording the podcast, Christian Collins came out, welcomed everyone. Christian's a good friend. I appreciate his terrific leadership and he suggested to everyone subscribing to the podcast and I'm going to tell you there's actually a very easy way to do so. So Ben, I'm relying on you to be my eyes here because I can't see the students gathered there but, but I want to ask everyone, pull out your cell phone, pull out your cell phone right now. Banner their cell phones out.
- [18:09]
Ben Ferguson
They're listening to you. They're doing it. They got their cell phones out.
- [18:12]
Senator Ted Cruz
Okay, pull out your cell phone and text the word verdict. V E R D I C T. Text the word verdict to the number 24005 let me give that to you again. The number is 24005. Text the word verdict to that number. What happens is you'll get a link back that you can click on the link and it'll subscribe you to this podcast. We do this podcast three days a week. We do it Monday, Wednesday and Friday. And the reason we do it is the corporate media is utterly broken. You cannot learn what is happening by watching cnn. All you can learn is the regime's talking points of what the Biden White House wants you to know. And so this podcast is designed every week we are breaking news and explaining what's going on that you can't get anywhere else. And really what it's designed. Look, you got a couple of thousand young people gathered there right now. Each of you has a circle of influence around you. You're talking to your friends and your family, and you're able to be champions for liberty. But you gotta have the information. You gotta know what's happening. And so this podcast is designed to give you the tools, give you the equipment, so that when you're talking with your classmate or your next door neighbor, your buddy or boyfriend or girlfriend, you know what the heck's going on, you know the facts, and you're able to be a whole lot more effective.
- [19:41]
Ben Ferguson
Final question, Senator, for you, and this is an important one before we get to do what we both love, and that's Q and A when we do live verdict events, is there is one story that this government shutdown is going to cover up. That is the impeachment inquiry to the Biden crime family and the President, United States of America, Joe Biden. And also some shocking news this week that there was money, two payments, more than a quarter million dollars in the summer of 2019. We talked about this on a previous verdict, and if you missed it, go back and listen to it. That went to the Biden family. And the address used was the address of the sitting President of the United States of America. Now, his Delaware address. Now, what's interesting is in Hunter Biden's own memoir, he said during that time he lived in California. We also know that in the sweetheart plea deal that Hunter Biden got in that plea agreement, it also stated that he was living in California at the time of that wire transfer. I know the media is hoping this story gets covered up, but you combine that with this impeachment inquiry that's happening, this is a very important time for truth and what's coming out against what the Bidens were doing.
- [20:57]
Senator Ted Cruz
Look, that is exactly right. And we do, in addition to the podcast, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, we do a Saturday issue that is a best of week in review. And actually, today's Saturday podcast focuses on one of the stories it highlights is exactly this story that, that Hunter Biden had wired to him. $250,000, a quarter million dollars from Communist China. And the home address on that wire was Joe Biden's own residence. It was Daddy's residence. Now, listen, that's not surprising. Hunter Biden has no skills. He has nothing marketable. He doesn't do anything. When's the last time you had a complex job and you said, what I really need is a crackhead? That is not what Hunter Biden is selling. What Hunter Biden sells is Daddy. Joe Biden is the product. Favors from Daddy is what Hunter got paid. Millions and millions of dollars and tens of millions of dollars is selling favors from Daddy. And by the way, at the same time that that $250,000 wire from communist China was coming with the home address of Joe Biden, Joe Biden was telling national reporters, hunter's never gotten anything from China. He was just flying flat outline. And one of the things we try to do with the podcast is walk through the actual evidence of what's going on on Biden impeachment. The podcast has walked through chapter and verse, the specific evidence, taking on, for example, the lie from Democrats and their puppets in the press that there is no, quote, direct evidence of Joe's involvement in corruption. That's a flat out lie. We explain why one of the things we covered this week on the podcast is the evidence that broke that there were three Iranian operatives, assets being managed by the Iranian government who were working in senior positions of influence with the Biden administration, helping set national security policy for the Biden administration. You literally have people controlled by the ayatollah and the mullahs in Iran in senior positions advising on or working on Biden's national security. Right now, there's still one of them at the Department of Defense, still drawing a paycheck with a security clearance, even though that person is an Iranian asset.
- [23:21]
Ben Ferguson
It's unbelievable. I want to get questions. This is something that you and I both love. And so you guys come up to these microphones, you can ask questions. I would ask you, since we are remote, keep them short and concise so that we can make sure that we get as many as possible in here. If you'll also state your name and where you live and send her. We're doing a little bit of Q and A We'll start over there. Go ahead.
- [23:43]
Chloe Castillo
Hello, my name is Chloe Castillo. I'm from San Antonio, Texas. Thank you so much for being here today, Mr. Cruz. So my question for you is kind of a cultural question. With your recent pushback on Uganda regarding homosexual crimes, what are your thoughts on how the Western popular music culture actively pushes the LGBTQ agenda on our youth?
- [24:05]
Senator Ted Cruz
Look, Chloe, it's a great question. And there's no doubt that Hollywood and the entertainment media as a whole pushes a radical left wing agenda, and that includes LGBTQ elementop. I can't keep up with all the letters that are attached to it now, but they push all of that. They push the transgender agenda. They're obsessive in pushing the transgender agenda and pushing it on kids, pushing it on kids as young as they can find it. I mean, look, we recently had Target, who was exposed selling, selling bathing suits for infants and for toddlers, for little boys to tuck, to hide their genitals, to pretend to be girls. And this is being marketed to 2 and 3 year olds. There is a pervasive effort to brainwash it, in particular brainwash kids. I think it is incredibly dangerous. I've got a new book that is coming out next month in November. The name of the book is how to Defeat Cultural Marxism in America. And what the book does, it talks through every major or many of the major organs of society that the radical left has seized. So it starts with, with universities, it goes to K through 12 education, it goes to journalism, it goes to entertainment, music, sports, it goes to science, it goes to big tech, it goes to big business. I actually talk quite a bit about Target. Target and Bud Light together. That's a big chunk of, of the chapter on big business. Because the reaction to that between Bud Light and Target, that's the first, first time we've seen real consequences to corporate America undermining our basic values. And so, you know, you mentioned Uganda. Uganda made it a criminal offense to engage in homosexual conduct. I don't support that. I'm actually quite libertarian in my leanings. I think what consenting adults want to do in their own bedroom is their own damn business. And so I don't think it should be a criminal offense, whatever you choose to do in that regard. But there's a big difference between, between saying consenting adults can decide what to do in their own sex lives and saying that, that you want to see a, a radical agenda proselytized to children and, and normalized. Listen, I am, I am a Christian. The Bible teaches that marriage is the union of one man and one woman. Those are my beliefs. That's, that's certainly what, what I teach and what I believe. And I'm not interested in, in having an agenda shoved down our throat. And I think we need to be in all of these topics, we need to be happy warriors. We need to be saying what we believe with a smile because the other side is so angry.
- [26:54]
Ben Ferguson
Let's go over here. Senator, you're going to love this. The T shirts of the Texas Youth Summit are Don't Tread on Me, which is awesome. And our next question is coming from.
- [27:04]
Christian Collins
Someone that has that T shirt on.
- [27:05]
Ben Ferguson
I love it. Well done.
- [27:06]
Jenna
Hello, Senator Cruz, My name is Jenna. I go to U of H here and I work at a tax firm as a tax consultant. And the tax deadline is coming up October 18th, and I was wondering how the government shutdown is going to affect the IRS and the accounting industry regarding that deadline that's coming up. And if you could explain kind of what's going to.
- [27:28]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah, look, that's, that's a very good question. And I expect that if the shutdown goes long and it could easily go a month, the Last one was 35 days in 2019, the Schumer shutdown, It could easily go a month. What it would mean as a practical matter is that much of the manpower at the IRS that would be available to assist you, that would be available to process returns, that would be available to answer questions, much of that manpower is not going to be there. They will keep essential workers, and it's up to each agency to decide who is essential. But things like customer service almost always get deemed non essential, and you end up with a significantly reduced workforce. And so you're working at a private firm, that's going to mean that your clients are going to need your advice. More significantly, because the IRS is going to be less available to be responsive, even less than they normally are.
- [28:27]
Ben Ferguson
Take a question from over here.
- [28:29]
Jenna
Hi, Senator Cruz, My name is Helen and I'm from the Woodlands. My question to you is, are you in favor of the age and term limits to be elected for Senate and Congress?
- [28:40]
Senator Ted Cruz
Thank you, Helen. Thank you for that question. So let me break them down one at a time. You asked about age limits and term limits on age limits. The only age limit we have for the Senate is the Constitution. So the Constitution provides that you have to be 25 years old to be elected to the House of Representatives. You have to be 30 years old to be elected to the Senate, and you have to be 35 years old to be Elected president. Other than that, there are currently no limits when it comes to serving in federal elected office. And it's one of the reasons why you see so many people in the senate who are 142 years old. I have joked, if you ever want to feel young, come work in the US Senate, because the median age is such that I have colleagues reminiscing about Eisenhower. I mean, it's, you know, I feel like a sprightly young lad in the body in which I serve. Term limits is something that I emphatically support. And so I have repeatedly introduced in the Senate a constitutional amendment to mandate term limits, to limit senators, each senator to two terms, to limit each House member to three terms. You know, it's interesting. Term limits was something I supported before I got to the Senate. But having seen this place firsthand, now I support it a thousand times more because this place is the swamp. It is corrupt. And the people who are here a long time are the worst. You get drawn in and corrupted by the swamp. And it's both parties. Look, the Democrats are bad, but for much of this spending that is bankrupting the country, we have a uniparty. We have Republican career politicians who jump in bed with the Democrats and eagerly spend trillions of dollars. And so term limits would be a major step to reducing that power and reducing that corruption. And it's an amazing thing if you look at term limits. Nationally, over 70% of Americans support term limits. That's true among Republicans, among Democrats, and among Independents, you see massive majorities supporting term limits. The one group that doesn't is career politicians in Washington. In the Senate, I have zero Democrats who support my term limits amendment. Every one of the Democrats is opposed to it. And I've chaired, I used to be chairman of the Constitution Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee. I chaired a hearing on term limits, brought in witnesses to talk about term limits. And the reality is in the Senate, the young guys support my term limits amendments and none of the longtime career politicians do. And that's why neither Chuck Schumer nor Mitch McConnell wants term limits to get a vote on the Senate floor because they oppose it that much. So I've been fighting, but I have not been able to get it on the floor because Schumer and McConnell control what gets on the floor.
- [31:39]
Ben Ferguson
Let's get a question on this side over here.
- [31:41]
Helen
Howdy. My name is Chad. I'm a sophomore in Houston, and I wanted to ask how Congress can give back some 10th Amendment rights to the state and people after events like nine, eleven and Covid have taken it away and given it to the federal government.
- [31:55]
Senator Ted Cruz
Look, that. That is a fantastic question. If you look at the Bill of Rights and you asked about the 10th Amendment. When I was in college, I wrote my senior thesis on the ninth and tenth amendments to the Constitution. And I'll tell you a little bit of the history of why they're written, and then I will get straight to your question. But originally the Constitution was written. There was no Bill of Rights. It was just the Constitution itself. And then there was a debate over whether to ratify the Constitution. And the two groups there were the Federalists and the anti Federalists. And the Federalists were advocating the Constitution's a good idea. We should ratify it. We should have it be the organic document forming our government. The anti Federalists were arguing against it. And one of the big arguments the anti Federalists had is they said, well, there's no Bill of Rights. This is a flawed document because there's no, no provision in it protecting our fundamental liberties. Now the Federalists came back and they said, no, no, we don't need a Bill of Rights. And the reason the Federalists gave is they said, this is a government of enumerated powers. If you look at Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution, Article 1 establishes the Congress, the legislative function. And Article 1, Section 8 specifies it enumerates 18 specific powers that Congress has. And the argument the Federalist said is, look, we don't need to say that, that the federal government cannot violate your free speech, cannot violate your religious liberty, cannot violate your right to keep and bear arms, because there's nothing in the enumerated powers that govern gives the federal government the power to violate those rights. And so we've already done that by limiting the federal government's authority initially. Now the anti Federalists came back and they had lots of arguments, one of which was, well, there's nothing to stop them from violating those rights within the enumerated power. So, for example, one of the enumerated powers is the power to create and maintain post offices under the original Constitution. Without a Bill of Rights, a government could say, the Biden administration will say, we will only transport letters from Democrats, all Republicans. We've decided we don't want Republicans speaking anymore. So we won't transfer their. We won't transport their letters. Now, if the government tried to do that today, that would obviously be an unconstitutional violation of free speech. Without a Bill of Rights, it would be permissible. I think the anti Federalists won that debate. So we now have a bill of rights. The first 10amendments to the Constitution are the Bill of Rights and the first eight are protecting specific rights. And then amendments nine and ten both say Amendment nine says the enumeration of certain rights in the Bill of Rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage other rights retained by the people. The 10th Amendment says the powers not given to the federal government are reserved to the states and to the people. Basically, the the Ninth and Tenth Amendments restate that the Constitution is a constitution of, of enumerated powers. In other words, they say even though we just listed these eight Bill of Rights, we agree that the federal government probably couldn't have done any of this anyway, but we want belt and suspenders. And so the question I think the 10th Amendment solves an enormous number of problems in our country. I think federalism, having states decide. And I would actually advise you to take a look at a center at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. It's called the center for 10th Amendment Studies. I started it. I was the first director, the first leader of the center for 10th Amendment Studies at TPPF. And it's continued. It is ongoing. I agree that a vast we should put as much decision making, as much authority as possible at the state level or even better at the local level, because it's more likely to meet the needs of the people that are being affected. And it's also more accountable, you, the citizens, are much more able to express your views and hold accountable local officials and state officials than some bureaucrat in a windowless office in Washington, D.C. let's.
- [36:17]
Ben Ferguson
Get a couple more questions in here on this side. Go ahead.
- [36:20]
Mary Melaveed
Hello, Senator Cruz. My name is Mary melaveed. I am 18 and from Magnolia, Texas. It appears that Democrats have control of the elections illegally through mules and in counting ballots. How is our vote even going to matter? Is there a plate, a plan in place for actually having our votes count?
- [36:46]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, Mary, thank you for that question. It's a hugely important question. You are right that voter fraud is a real problem. It is a persistent problem. It's a problem that has been around since the dawn of time, since the very first elections. I'm convinced that when the cavemen sat got together to vote on who was going to be grand poobah, somebody stuffed the ballot box. That's just human nature that we have crooks and crooks try to steal things. So we need to fight against voter fraud. We need to fight to preserve voter integrity. Now the good news is we're in Texas. And Texas, the Texas legislature has passed legislation Strong legislation designed to prevent voter fraud. It's not perfect. It still exists. But we have tools in place to prevent voter fraud. There are things like requiring photo id, which we do in Texas, that reduces fraud. There are things like prohibiting ballot harvesting, prohibiting paid political operatives from handling someone else's ballot. That reduces voter fraud significantly. Ballot harvesting invites voter fraud. Things like limiting mail in ballots. In Texas, we do so only in limited circumstances, typically seniors or people with significant disabilities. But for the vast majority of Texans, the way you vote is you go vote in person. We have a two week period of early voting, so it's actually pretty easy to vote. But you vote in person. In person voting reduces the chances of voter fraud. I think we need to be vigilant fighting against voter fraud. I've spent 20 plus years fighting against voter fraud. At the same time, if you look nationally, they're blue states, they're purple states that they're not going to pass legislation to protect election integrity because the Democrats have decided they support voter fraud. It helps them and it's the way the world's changed. Ten years ago there were Democrats who would work with you on something like photo id. There are none today because they've decided voter fraud is good for them. In blue states and purple states, they're not going to change their laws to stop voter fraud. Here's the good news. Historically, voter fraud typically only matters at the margins. It matters in a close election. So the answer is in those blue states and purple states, we got to win by a big enough margin. They can't steal the race from us. Now that's not fair. It's frustrating, but the alternative is give up on our country. And I got to tell you, there are a lot of Democrats and a lot of people in the corporate media that want all of us to give up on our country. They want conservatives to say, well, voter fraud is still there, so I'm not going to vote, to hell with it. And I'll tell you what, if we do that, that becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. Then our country truly is lost. And I'll point as a moment of encouragement. Look no further than the state of Virginia. Virginia went for Joe Biden by 10 points. Virginia has been blue for the past decade. Biden won Virginia by 10 points. One year later, in 2021, Glenn Youngkin, who's a good friend of mine, I campaigned with Glenn Youngkin all over Virginia, spent two, two days barnstorming the state of Virginia with Glenn. One year after Biden was elected, Glenn Youngkin was elected as a Republican in Virginia. Now, Virginia had not changed a single voter integrity law. They had the same lousy election laws they had the year before. But a whole bunch of moms, moms who had voted for Joe Biden got ticked off at what the schools were doing to our kids and they flipped over and voted Republicans Republican. That gives us a roadmap to what we can and I think what we have to do in this next election.
- [40:40]
Ben Ferguson
Senator, it's, it's always a pleasure to see people in person. I love doing these verdict lies. For that, don't forget we do this show three days a week, Monday, Wednesday, Fridays. We have our best of recap on Saturdays. Make sure you subscribe and those days in between, download my podcast. The Ben Ferguson Podcast is. Well, I'll keep you updated on the biggest news. I want to give a big thank you to all of you that are here. Senator, I know it's a pleasure. I know you wish you're here not being held hostage in D.C. but give Senator Cruz a big round of applause. You guys are awesome and hopefully next year we'll be back in person here. Thank you guys so much. God bless and we'll see you again soon.
- [41:27]
Christian Collins
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