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- [00:00]
Podcast Host
This is an iHeart podcast.
- [00:02]
Public Investing Sponsor
Guaranteed Human support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It's IT screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like EFTs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors llc SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not investment recommendation or advice. Complete Disclosures available at public.comDisclosures 10 athletes.
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Trainer Games Promoter
Will face the toughest job interview in fitness that will push past physical and mental breaking points. You are the fittest of the fit. Only one of you will leave here with an IFIT contract worth $250,000. This is where mindset comes someone will be eliminated.
- [01:37]
Senator Ted Cruz
Pressure is coming down. Trainer Games on Prime Video January 8th. Watch the trailer on trainergames.com Season 2.
- [01:44]
Podcast Host
Of Unrivaled Basketball is here and the talent is unreal. Paige Beckers, Nafiza Collier, Kelsey Plumb, Brianna Stewart and more are back to redefine the game. Unrivaled basketball Season 2, sponsored by Samsung Galaxy, tips off January 5th on TNT, TruTV and HBO Max.
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- [02:33]
Ben Ferguson
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- [03:00]
Ben Ferguson
Welcome. It is vertic with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you, and Senator, this is one of those fun shows we get to do towards the end of the year, and that's talking about the gop. Open up a can of whoopee on the Democrats, especially in the Senate. We had big wins for the American people that are going to have a real impact, especially on a lot of Americans. Millions in 2026, when many of the laws that were passed are actually enacted. On a scale of 1 to 10, how excited are you about the results from this year?
- [03:32]
Senator Ted Cruz
37.
- [03:33]
Ben Ferguson
37. Okay. I like that.
- [03:35]
Senator Ted Cruz
Look, this year, it is not an exaggeration to say we had historic victories in the Senate. We had victories at a order of magnitude we've never seen. And so this show, we're just going to walk through all of the victories we've won in the Senate. I'll tell you, in my 13 years in the Senate, I have never had a year like this with so many major victories, with so many accomplishments that are lasting and transformational. And look, we came in and started the year with President Trump being sworn in and the Trump administration hit the ground running with a head of steam. But the Senate, and the Senate is now, Congress is out now for Christmas. We'll come back after New Year's. What we accomplish this year is transformational. All right, let's start with the board. We came in, the border was wide open. The worst illegal immigration in history. We now have a president and an administration that will follow the law. Illegal border crossings dropped more than 99%. That is staggering.
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Ben Ferguson
Incredible. Tom Holman at the White House this week was talking about, he's worked under, I think it's five, six presidents. Crazy. And he's like, I've never seen something like this where we have like zero illegal immigration because we secured it. And we said, you're not going to get away with it.
- [04:59]
Senator Ted Cruz
And if you look legislatively, by far legislatively, the biggest accomplishment was the reconciliation bill that President Trump signed on July 4th. It's interesting. That used to be called the one big beautiful bill. You will now see just about every senator referring to it as the working families tax cut. Same bill. And there's a reason, which is they did a Bunch of polling and the working families tax cut polls about 40 points better than the one big beautiful bill. And so it happens to be a major tax cut for working families. So the working families tax cut is an accurate name. But, but you're going to notice everyone calling it the working families tax cut. Now, that legislation, and this, no hyperbole, has more conservative victories in it than any bill that's ever passed into law. I believe in the history of the Republic. Let's break it down.
- [05:55]
Ben Ferguson
I would say, what are the big ones for, Bill? Because there's some in there that, that there's been this, quote, frustration. I think a lot of this is the left in the media trying to drum up that Donald Trump's not getting it done for you. He forgot about you. So much of what people need to understand is the passing of this bill means the enacting of the bill in 2026.
- [06:16]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah, many, many of the provisions go into effect in 2026. You're going to start seeing the real benefits in, kicking in, in, in force in 2026. All right, look, the working families tax cut, the biggest element of it was extending and making permanent the Trump tax cuts. If we had not done that in two weeks on, on January 1st, there would have been a $4 trillion tax increase that would have been crippling to the economy. So making those tax cuts permanent is enormously important. We also made them bigger than. So we passed no taxes on tips. That was my legislation, by the way. People will start seeing the benefits of that next year. So if you're a waiter, if you're a waitress, if you're a bartender, if you work in a nail salon, if you're a taxicab driver, the millions of Americans who rely on tips are going to see real, meaningful tax relief. We've also got no tax on overtime. Millions of Americans who earn a significant portion of their income on overtime, and that's now tax free. No tax on Social Security for the millions of seniors at home relying on Social Security. All three of those are going into effect in 2026. All three of those are going to provide really meaningful relief. What else do we have? You look at the investments that we have, over $100 billion in securing the border. So Trump is enforcing the law that was critical, that produced the immediate drop. And now we provided the funding to build the wall, to put in technology, to hire border patrol, to hire ice, to invest in law enforcement. All of that is designed to make these massive improvements stick. That is, as a conservative. There's never been a hundred billion dollar investment in securing the border.
- [08:06]
Ben Ferguson
You know, it's interesting, I was speaking yesterday to a realtor group, they asked me to come and speak and they said to me they never could have imagined that securing the border would have such a positive impact as they've described it for American families. They said they were witnessing over the last basically four and a half years the, the, the, the, the age of first time home buyers had skyrocketed where home ownership was unattainable for families, young families in their, in their 30s. It was now getting to be 40 before people were getting the first time home buyer rent had gotten out of control. And they said they can't wait for 2026 because they are seeing now with, with 2 million plus deportations, people have stopped coming across the border illegally. They believe it's going to be a great year for American families and first time home buyers because now you're not having to compete with so many illegal immigrants.
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Senator Ted Cruz
Well, and we covered that on Wednesday's pod that, that the new data came out that showed rents dropped significantly and they dropped significantly because the president has deported 2 million people who are here illegally. Those people are now not buying homes, they're not renting apartments and supply and demand. That means that it drives down the cost of a home. It drives down the cost of rent for Americans.
- [09:25]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, it really does. It's incredible. And that's just one of those massive victories. And it's not just that. It's also the national security part of this. I mean rarely do you hear home prices and national security related to one simple issue. That's something that you had been fighting so hard on. It's another victory.
- [09:41]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, and in the working families tax cut, we invested $150 billion in rebuilding the military so we can stand up to our adversary, so we can stand up to China and the other enemies we have across the globe. And the way it works in the Senate is when you're drafting that bill, each committee chairman drafts whatever is in their jurisdiction. So I am the chairman of the Senate committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. That committee covers about 40% of the US economy. What that means is that everything within that jurisdiction I wrote, I had the lead pen and wrote. So for example, one thing that is in the Commerce jurisdiction is the Coast Guard. So we invested $24.5 billion in the Coast Guard. Now, to give you a sense of how important that is, how significant that is, what do you think the annual budget of the Coast Guard is?
- [10:37]
Ben Ferguson
I honestly have no clue.
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Senator Ted Cruz
It's between 11 and 12 billion. Okay, so we invested more than 200% the annual budget of the Coast Guard into the Coast Guard. I mean, it is historical.
- [10:49]
Ben Ferguson
Is that because they were purposely and deliberately underfunded by the left in the Biden administration because they didn't want them to be able to do this job?
- [10:55]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, look, it was what we were investing in, or let me tell you what we invested in. It was specifically in capital. So rebuilding infrastructure, building new ships, building new helicopters. And a massive portion of it is polar ice cutters. So polar ice cutters in the Arctic, we're getting our asses kicked by China and by Russia and we don't have the capability right now to build Arctic ice cutters. Well, we've invested billions in building new ice cutters. And the beauty of it is that's bringing shipbuilding back to the United States. One company, Davies, announced a billion and a half dollars investment in a shipyard in Galveston, Texas to build those ships. Let us compete with China, but also bringing manufacturing capacity back to the United States.
- [11:42]
Ben Ferguson
Operation Overlord. The D day beaches. You and I share a passion for history. So I hope you'll join me next spring on the D Day beaches in Normandy. That's right. The invasion that sealed Hitler's doom. Omaha and Utah. You're going to discover the sacred patch of sand with me. 10 days in Europe, luxury hotels and fully escorted by America's leading expert on France and the D day invasion, Ken Chase. 57. 57. And that includes your airfare. You're going to stand at General Patton's grave site, Bastogne, Point du Hart and Mulberry Harbor. Call my friends at Conservative Tours on your cell phone. Just dial pound250 and say the keyword Conservative Tours. Or go to conservativetours.com an A plus rating with the BBB. All your sightseeing in Paris. 2 dial pound 2. Say the keyword Conservative Tours. You'll have the option to receive a one time auto dialed text message from iheartmedia. Senator, there was so much focus on the economy in this last year and the wins. But there were some really big wins within that. One of them deals with the airwaves and it deals with national security. It deals with people and what you can have access to explain this big win because it didn't get as much media attention as it probably should have.
- [13:03]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah, look, as you know, my number one priority is jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs. There are lots of major wins this year that we passed into law that are impacting job creation, that are creating more high paying jobs in Texas and all across the country. One of the big ones is spectrum. Now, what is spectrum? Electromagnetic spectrum is how everything communicates, how our cell phones work, how WI fi works, how. How TV and broadcast and everything goes out over spectrum. The largest holder of spectrum in the United States is the United States government. United States government has massive quantities of spectrum that it owns that are not available to the private sector. I wrote into the working families tax cut, a mandate that the federal government auction off 800 MHz of spectrum to the private sector. Now, now, what does that mean? That means that in the coming years, that is going to generate over $100 billion for the U.S. government. I mean, the spectrum is incredibly valuable. That's real money that goes directly to the U.S. treasury. Now, why will it generate over $100 billion? Because that spectrum is incredibly valuable. Number one, it's, it's valuable for our phones. It's valuable for, to beat China in the race for 5G and then beat China in the race for 6G. And you've got to have the spectrum to invest in that. What that means is you're going to see, you're going to see the big phone companies, you're going to see AT&T and Verizon and Sprint investing tens of billions of dollars into new capacity to use that spectrum. All of that means more jobs, that means more people setting up towers, more people building that innovation. It also, it supercharges the tech world, much of the AI world. Winning the race for AI having that spectrum available means the private sector, they can compete for all sorts of different uses for using that spectrum. And I'll tell you, that was not an easy battle because most of that spectrum that the government holds is either the Department of War or the intelligence agencies have them and they don't like to give them up. We won that fight. That will generate thousands and thousands of. That will produce thousands and thousands of new jobs. Another big win in the working family tax cut is air traffic control modernization in that bill.
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Ben Ferguson
Desperately needed, by the way. Like, I don't think people understand how desperately the need was for modernization. What the Trump administration inherited. You and I both remember the very first night a dear friend of ours became the cabinet member in charge of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. The first night, he and his family went into his building where his office was going to be, and we had that horrific crash with a helicopter that came across and hit that plane at Reagan National. Your, your wife was in the air that night. And it brought up even a bigger issue like how does this happen? And we realized there was a. A massive modernization that was desperately needed for the safety. As more and more planes are flying each and every day. You fly every week? I fly almost every week as well. I want to know I'm safe. I want to know when my family's on a plane that they are safe. And this is something that is good for every American that flies well.
- [16:24]
Senator Ted Cruz
And we had two major victories this year in the Senate on aviation safety. The first was in the working family tax cut. We invested $12.5 billion in terms of modernizing our air traffic control. Air traffic controllers, right now in the tower. If you look at the technology they've been using, it is literally 1950s and 1960s technology. They're using radar, they're using little slips of paper. They're using floppy disks. They have computers with floppy disk. When I talk to anyone under 30, they don't know what a floppy disk is, but that's the technology that they're using. So there's 12 and a half million dollars. They've been. The FAA, the Trump administration, has been ripping up copper wiring that was failing and replacing it with fiber. They've been getting new and updated computers, getting new technology, all designed so the air traffic controllers can know where the planes are and can manage the airspace to avoid collisions. You know, you mentioned the horrific accident that happened over D.C. ronald Reagan Airport at the end of January. That accident, an American Airlines flight was flying from Wichita, Kansas, landing at D.C. reagan, and as you know, it hit an Army Black Hawk helicopter. 67 lives perished that instant. As you noted, Heidi was literally in the air, scheduled to land at Reagan. About an hour after that, I was sitting at dinner. I was having dinner with Mike Waltz, who was at the time President Trump's national security adviser. Now he's the ambassador to the UN And Mike's a good friend of mine. And we were at dinner when we both got notified. In fact, my body man, who, you know, he came up, and thankfully he did this right. He started with Heidi's okay, but I need to tell you what just happened. And that was a good way to start. I'm glad the Heidi's okay started. But if you look at aviation safety, a second big victory that we just had on aviation safety happened this week, which is in response to what happened there. I began drafting legislation that's called the ROTOR Act. Yeah. And the ROTOR act is designed to mandate that all aircraft in the sky use what's called ADS B technology. ADS B out and ADS B in. And that is advanced technology to help the other planes in the sky and the other aircraft see each other and to help the air traffic controllers have the information on the precise location in real time. With radar, there's a delay, whereas ADS B gives it to you in real time. Now, why is that directly relevant to the crash? Well, the Army Black Hawk helicopter had ADS B technology installed. They had it turned off.
- [19:09]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah.
- [19:10]
Senator Ted Cruz
And so the American Airlines pilot couldn't see the Black Hawk helicopter and didn't know it was there until the two collided. And unfortunately, we discovered the army had a policy of leaving ADS B turned off just as a routine matter. It was indefensible. And so the ROTOR act mandates, number one, that the military follow the same rules as everybody else. If you're gonna be flying, particularly through crowded airspace at an airport, use the technology so the other aircraft can see where you are and so you don't have a collision. And it mandates that everyone use ADS B technology in and out in the planes. That legislation, you know, it's interesting, we had the senate just passed this week the National Defense Authorization act that we pass that every year. That is the big military authorization that we pass. And someone in the House of Representatives dropped a provision in the dark of night that would have allowed the army to keep ADS B turned off. Well, this week I passed the ROTOR act and repealed that provision. And so when the House passes it and the president signs it, which I think will happen in January, everyone will be safer flying.
- [20:23]
Ben Ferguson
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- [21:23]
Public Investing Sponsor
Support for the show comes from public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On public, you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index. With AI, it all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year. You can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like EFTs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors, llc. SEC Register Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not investment recommendation or advice. Complete Disclosures available at public.comDisclosures 10 athletes.
- [22:33]
Trainer Games Promoter
Will face the toughest job interview in fitness that will push past physical and mental breaking points. You are the fittest of the fit. Only one of you will leave here with an IFIT contract worth $250,000.
- [22:51]
Senator Ted Cruz
This is where mindset comes in.
- [22:53]
Trainer Games Promoter
Someone will be eliminated.
- [22:55]
Senator Ted Cruz
Pressure is coming down. Trainer Games on Prime Video January 8th. Watch the trailer on trainergames.com Season 2.
- [23:03]
Podcast Host
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- [23:32]
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- [24:03]
Ben Ferguson
There is one thing that I actually think will end up being your legacy one day long. Long down the road when you're long and gone and people say, what did Ted Cruz do? I actually believe this will be brought up for a extremely long amount of time. It is going to Be transformative to this country, to the young people in this country. And it deals with education. It is something you've been championing for decades, an idea that you love and now it became reality and you had to fight tooth and nail to keep it in the big bill. Talk about this victory and what it means, application wise, especially moving forward.
- [24:42]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, look, I agree with you in terms of the magnitude of this victory. And let me say, when we were in the middle of drafting the working families tax cut in April of this year, we did a retreat of all the Senate Republicans and we were talking about all the different elements that we wanted in the bill and everyone had different priorities. And I stood up kind of midway through and I said, look, there are a lot of things in this bill that are incredibly important. Cutting taxes, investing and securing the border, rebuilding the military, all of that matters a ton of. But I said we ought to think for a minute about legacy, about what will be remembered 10, 20, 30 years from now, what will be remembered when we're dead and buried. And I said, I've got two suggestions, two suggestions that fall into the category. The first was school choice and the second was what has now become the Trump accounts. Now, both of those suggestions I wrote the legislation for and both of them are in the bill. Let's start with school choice. What is in the bill? This, this will kick in. This will start kicking in in a year. And what it will do is every taxpayer in America can give up to seventeen hundred dollars to a scholarship granting organization in the states. If you do so, you will get a dollar for dollar tax credit. Now importantly, this is not a deduction, it's a credit. What does that mean? It means if Ben Ferguson writes a check for $1,700 to, to an organization that gives scholarships to kids in Texas, you owe $1,700 less to Uncle Sam. You just give less on your taxes. So it's basically free money. From, from your perspective, what that is going to do is it is going to produce tens of billions of dollars of scholarships for kids in K through 12 education all across the country. And 10, 20, 30 years from now, literally millions of kids who were stuck in failing schools, many of them African American kids, Hispanic kids, low income kids who are in schools where there's violence, where they're not learning, where they're not able to get the education, they're failing and we're failing them. Look, if it's a five year old, it's not the five year old's fault. If the kindergarten is a Crappy kindergarten. That's not the kid's fault. That is at the end of the day, school choice is about. I think it's the civil rights issue of the 21st century. I think every child deserves access to an excellent education and it shouldn't matter what your race is, what your wealth is, where you live. This provision, 30 years from now, we're going to look back and literally there are going to be millions of kids who would have been failed by the system, but instead got a scholarship and ended up being able to go to a Catholic school, to a Jewish day school, to a private school, and to be safe, not to be at risk of violence, to learn, to read and learn. And if you get education, it opens up every other opportunity for the rest of your life. And if you don't get an education, you're screwed. That is in there. Look, I've been fighting for school choice for 30 years. The school choice movement is the domestic priority I care the most about, by.
- [28:02]
Ben Ferguson
The way, let's go back for people that maybe missed that episode. I don't think people understand just how hard Democrats, the teachers unions, didn't want this to happen and how hard you had to fight to keep it in there. Because there was many times where we thought it may not make it look.
- [28:18]
Senator Ted Cruz
And it was particularly difficult because the Senate parliamentarian, to get anything through the reconciliation process, you have to go through the Senate parliamentarian and there are Kane rules for what is allowed and what is not allowed when you're doing reconciliation. Three times the Senate parliamentarian struck this school choice provision. And normally the way that happens, it's like litigation where you have both sides, the Democrats get to argue. So the Democrats argued to the parliamentarian, strip this out, and fought tooth and nail. Now, normally it is staff, it is staff of senators who go in and argue on both sides. It is very unusual for a senator to do this. I did this myself. I went in and argued to the parliamentarian and her team directly and we ended up rewriting the provision. We rewrote it three times to get it through. When she objected to something, we rewrote it to address that and we got it in the second provision that is going to have just, just generational impacts are the Trump accounts. And starting.
- [29:23]
Ben Ferguson
I love their culture gowns. It was a great marketing measure. But this started with you, Senator. You could easily call this the Cruz accounts the same time.
- [29:32]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah, but, but, but he's in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and so, so he gets to have his name on it. And that's Great. He signed it in the law and it is historic. But, but I did write the provision and I got to say, the impact. What's going to happen next year? Next year, on July 4th, every child in America is going to have a personal investment account open for them. Newborn children will have $1,000 automatically seated into it.
- [29:59]
Ben Ferguson
This is amazing.
- [30:00]
Senator Ted Cruz
Parents, families, employers can put up to $5,000 a year in a tax advantage account. And all of that will be invested in the S&P 500 will be invested in a broad based equity index, invested in the stock market. Two massive benefits from this. Number one, every child in America will get the benefit of compound growth. And that is incredibly powerful. A little girl born next year, she has $1,000 put in it automatically. If her parents or family or an employer puts 5,000 a year that's invested in the stock market, we grow at the historical rate of average. Let's assume 7% of the S&P 500. By the time she is 18, she will have $170,000 in that account.
- [30:52]
Ben Ferguson
Wow.
- [30:53]
Senator Ted Cruz
And if she keeps investing 5,000 a year, by the time she's 35, she will have $700,000 in that account. That's transformational. And we're not talking rich kids. We're talking the kids of a single mom. We're talking everybody that's money that she can use to buy a home, to start a business, to get an education. I mean, that changes her entire life. But secondly, and this is the part as a conservative that I'm really excited about, we are creating a whole new generation of capitalists, a whole new generation of kids. Every kid is going to be an owner of the biggest employers in America. And so they won't think about companies as big, mean, scary corporations. They'll look at their phone and they'll see the app and say, Look, I own 100 bucks of Apple or Boeing or McDonald's. And that, I think will change the country. And without exaggeration, Ben, I think those two provisions are the most consequential provisions of the entire bill. And you know, it was interesting. As you know, a couple of weeks ago, I was at the White House with the President for a big press conference on the Trump accounts. And Michael and Susan Dell were there, and the two of them are giving six and a quarter billion dollars to put money in the accounts of millions of kids all over the country. And we deliberately wrote this so that philanthropists could do that. That was part of the design. I wrote the legislation so these accounts would be able to accept Gifts of philanthropy. And it was interesting at the press conference where we were talking about the effect and transformational effect, and you could actually see President Trump, I think he really got, like, the impact of this at the press conference in a way I don't think he ever had. And there was a reporter who asked him, said, Mr. President, are these Trump accounts gonna be a major part of your legacy? And you could kind of see him thinking about that and then just like, yes, yes, they will. And I think that's absolutely right. Look, I mean, in terms of my, my tenure in the Senate, there is nothing I am more proud of doing in the Senate in 13 years fighting for Texans than passing the biggest school choice program in American history and passing the Trump accounts into law. And both of those, they're gonna impact not just your and my kids, but our grandkids and their grandkids. Those are victories at an historic level. And that's why I say we keep. We've won victories we've never seen at this level level.
- [33:28]
Ben Ferguson
Senator, as we're doing our year review, I, I love getting to say this one. We had a big win on the issue of space. We're not talking about you finding aliens or anything, but we do have an update on space that's near and dear to your heart with NASA and Houston, of course. Talk about the big victory there.
- [33:44]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, in the working families tax tax Cut, we invested $10 billion in NASA and, and commercial space, and in particular in going back to the moon. And again, because that falls within the jurisdiction of the Commerce Committee, I wrote this provision. And we are in a race to go back to the moon. We're in a race with China. China has said publicly they are going to go to the moon by 2030, and they're trying to get back there. And it's also a race not just to get there, but to also to build sustained human habitation on the surface of the moon, to begin mining on the surface of the moon. That's the next challenge that we're moving towards. China is moving full speed ahead. And we did major investments to say America is going to beat China back to the moon. We are going to have sustained human habitation on the lunar surface or in CIS lunar orbit. And that investment, it is in the bill, it is critically important. And the objective is for us to land on the moon by 2028, two years before China, with President Trump still in the Oval Office. And that investment will make it. And I'll tell you, this is a point I made. If we lose, if we were to lose the race to the moon. I think the impact of seeing the Chinese on the moon before we could get there, I think it would be a bigger blow to the country than Sputnik was. Sputnik, when the Russians launched the first satellite Sputnik around the Earth, it was a massive blow. It started the space race. And I think losing the moon to China would be orders of magnitude worse. That investment is in there. It matters. And it matters also enormously. There are over 50,000 high paying jobs in Texas that are directly connected to space. So it's big for jobs, jobs in the economy as well.
- [35:33]
Ben Ferguson
Selfishly, I just think it would be so cool for kids minds to be blown to see in HD people walking on the moon. Just the wonder and the, and the inspiration that would come from that for an entire generation, you know, with everything that's AI and technology driven, like just to have a moment of pause where we're like we went to the moon and you can see it hd. I can't imagine what that does for kids that are dreamers for their futures and their education as well.
- [36:00]
Senator Ted Cruz
Look, I spend a lot of time at Johnson Space Center. I spend a lot of time with NASA and like the inspiration that astronauts provide. Now, do you know the connection that Rice University has to us going to the moon the first time?
- [36:14]
Ben Ferguson
No, I do not.
- [36:16]
Senator Ted Cruz
So it was at Rice University at the Rice Stadium. You've been to that football stadium that JFK gave the speech where he committed we will go to the moon within a decade. And in fact what he said, he said why does Rice play the University of Texas? They do so not because it is easy, but because it is hard. And that was, that was his explanation for why are we going to the moon. We're going to the moon for the same reason Rice plays ut, not because it easy, because it's hard. And it inspired millions of kids. We're gonna do that again. But it's also critical. Listen, there are major economic benefits. I predicted for a long time the first trillionaire is going to be made in space. That may well be Elon Musk. He's already halfway there. I think the mining that we're going to see on the moon and ultimately on Mars is going to generate enormous economic activity. And it also matters from national security and from a military perspective, controlling what is quite literally the high ground is really important for keeping America safe.
- [37:28]
Ben Ferguson
CAFE standards. I want to make sure we get this in there before the end of the show. Let's talk about that victory as well.
- [37:34]
Senator Ted Cruz
Another Provision I wrote in the bill, we zeroed out CAFE standards. Now, what are CAFE standards? They're the rules the Biden administration put in place to drive up the cost of your car and drive up the cost of your truck. And what they did is they jacked up the mileage. It had to get to what were unsustainable levels. And they were doing that because they wanted to ban the internal combustion engine. They wanted to make it impossible for you to buy a gasoline car. They wanted to force you to buy an electric vehicle.
- [38:03]
Ben Ferguson
Let's be clear, it also put you and your family at risk because of having to be forced to make the cars lighter. They had to get rid of the steel in cars that made them so safe, like tanks. And that's the reason why everything's now in plastic and the bumpers and you've had a small wreck. You see how things just shatter. It's because they're trying to meet those standards.
- [38:24]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah, look, my first car was a 1978 Ford Fairmont. It was my grandfather's car that he gave it to me. It was, we called it the green bomb.
- [38:32]
Ben Ferguson
When you were younger. I knew it. That was confirmation, right?
- [38:35]
Senator Ted Cruz
Are you kidding? That was the coolest car. We called it the green bomb and it was a tank. And if you got a 16 year old boy, all 16 year old boys are idiots. And I, for the teenagers listening, I apologize, but I was there. I was an idiot. And I promise you, when you get older, you understand it's just part of life, growing up and, and like putting your kids in a car that is big enough that if they hit something like an idiot, that they're not going to be badly hurt or killed. That matters. We zeroed it out. The effect of that is going to be to lower the cost of you getting a car or a truck lowered by thousands of dollars. That's another victory that is in the bill and it also is going to save lives, just as you said, because you'll be able to make cars that are safer with more steel and less plastic.
- [39:19]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, it really is incredible. Finally, one last thing I do want to hit and it's important one to end the show, take it down, act something that you worked so hard on became a reality as well this year and it keeps kids safe.
- [39:30]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah, it's a great victory. Look, there is a growing problem with what's called non consensual intimate imagery. And we're talking both real world so called revenge porn where you have boyfriend or girlfriend, they have an intimate relationship, they take explicit pictures or videos of each other. And then they have a breakup and they get one of them is ticked off and decides, all right, I'm gonna stick it to you and I'm gonna release this to the world. And it is a grotesque violation of privacy. Nobody has a right to do that to somebody else. There is secondly, a more recent aspect of that, which is deep fakes. And people are using AI to create deep fakes where they take pictures of real people and they use AI to make it appear that they're naked or in explicit and sexual situations. More than 95% of the victims of this are women or teenage girls. And, and so I drafted a bill that's called the Take it Down act, that number one, makes it a crime, makes it a felony to post non consensual intimate imagery, either real pictures or fake pictures. And secondly, it gives you the right, if, God forbid, you're the victim of this, any tech platform that is displaying that content, you have a federal statutory right to demand they take it down. And they have to take it down immediately. And we passed that through the Senate, we passed that through the House. The first lady, Melania Trump was a big champion. She joined with me and I was in the Rose Garden right next to the President and right next to the first lady when he signed that legislation protecting kids, protecting teenage girls, teenage boys, women, protecting everyone. And also standing up to the abuse of AI, creating deep fakes and victimizing people. People.
- [41:20]
Ben Ferguson
It's so important. If you've ever known, and I know a family lost a child because this, they took their own life because of the shame and they were being bullied. It was online and it was actually not even them. It was a fake picture, but everyone thought it was this person. After you meet with those families, you've done it. You have a heart for them. This is going to save lives as well. I want to say it again, do not forget Download Verdict with Ted Cruz wherever you get your podcast with this show. Monday, Wednesday, Friday, we also do it as a video podcast. You can watch that on YouTube or Facebook as well. And the Senator and I will be back with you. More on this, I can promise you a big wins ahead in the new year as well. So make sure you don't miss single episode. And if you're listening on the radio right now, thank you so much for listening as well. We'll see you back again real soon.
- [42:05]
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Senator Ted Cruz
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Senator Ted Cruz
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