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I believe that Ted has become the leading pointman on most of the immediate, most pressing issues bogged down in the Senate.

And he will do just fine on Second Amendment votes as they came up.

Here be the words of the man himself�a year ago�
Democrats put politics into firearm legislation
May 7, 2013
By Ted Cruz
In the national debate over gun control, emotion and rhetoric often overshadow the facts. Consider what President Barack Obama said in the wake of the tragic murders at Sandy Hook: "If there's even one thing we can do to reduce this violence, if there's even one life that can be saved, then we've got an obligation to try."

Of course he's right; we should do everything we can to stop violent gun crime. But then why did Democrats in the Senate just vote down common-sense legislation that would have made major progress in actually stopping gun crime? The only answer is politics.

There are two basic approaches to gun legislation: We can target violent criminals and those with serious mental illnesses or we can restrict the rights of law-abiding citizens. Obama and U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nevada, favor the latter. But the former is what actually works.

Here are three facts that Obama does not want to address:
The Obama administration has not made it a priority to prosecute felons and fugitives who try to illegally purchase guns. Indeed, in 2010, 48,321 fugitives and felons tried to illegally purchase firearms. The Obama administration prosecuted just 44. Forty-four out of 48,321.

Under Obama, gun crime prosecutions hit a decade low in 2011 - down 30 percent from their record high in 2004.

Obama's budgets have slashed funding for school safety. If the objective were to stop violent gun crime, the approach would be to target felons, gun-crime prosecution and school safety.

And that's exactly what the Grassley-Cruz bill would have done. It allocated $50 million to create a task force to prosecute felons and fugitives trying to illegally purchase guns; it provided $45 million to increase gun-crime prosecution in the 15 most dangerous U.S. cities; and it restored $300 million in school-safety funding that the Obama budget had cut.

The legislation had the most bipartisan support of all the gun proposals; Democrats cast nine of the 52 yes votes. But the remaining Democrats, led by Reid, filibustered and killed the bill.

Why? They wanted instead to pass legislation that would extend the background check system to private sales between law-abiding citizens.
Their bill would not have allocated one penny to prosecuting felons, fugitives or gun crimes. But it was poll-tested. "Universal background checks" are popular, at least until people learn what that entails.


Under current law, every federally licensed firearms dealer must perform a background check on every single gun sale, whether that sale occurs in a store, at a gun show or online. Individual citizens, however, are not required to do the same for private sales.

The bill Obama seeks would turn Americans into felons for simply selling or transferring a firearm without first performing a background check, with fines and penalties up to five years.
A recent national poll of law-enforcement officers showed that they overwhelmingly disagree this would bring down gun crime.

If regulating private sales wouldn't be effective at stopping violent crime, why are the Democrats pushing so hard for it?
For one thing, it would impose a universal Obama "gun tax" on private sales - requiring individual citizens to pay for the new background checks.

Even more ominously, the long-term objective of extending background checks to private citizens is the creation of a national gun registry, a federal government list of every firearm owned by every American.
To be sure, the latest Senate legislation purports to prohibit a gun registry, but the Obama Justice Department has been explicit about its ultimate objective.

In January 2013, Greg Ridgeway, deputy director of DOJ's National Institute for Justice, wrote, "effectiveness (of universal background checks) depends on the ability to reduce straw purchasing, requiring gun registration and an easy gun transfer process."

And gun registration has historically been the predicate for gun confiscation.
Senate Democrats reply that gun confiscation is not their objective. But the record belies that claim.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has said that, "If I could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate of the United States for an outright ban, picking up every one of them (assault weapons) � Mr. and Mrs. America, turn 'em all in, I would have done it."

Given those stated objectives, Americans are understandably reluctant to take any steps down a path toward a federal gun registry.
Instead, we should protect the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms for law-abiding citizens.
And we should do what works: targeting felons, fugitives and gun crime and improving school safety.

If we look at the facts, that's how we stop violent crime.

Ted Cruz: John Kerry should step down




Sen. Ted Cruz called for the resignation of Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday afternoon, criticizing Kerry for reportedly telling world leaders that he fears Israel could become an �apartheid state.�

The secretary said in a closed door meeting last week that Israel might transform into an �apartheid state� without a two-state solution to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine, according to the Daily Beast. The Texas GOP senator said he read Kerry�s comments with �great sadness� but that those type of remarks are precisely why he voted against the former Massachusetts senator�s nomination last year.


�I was convinced that as Secretary of State John Kerry would place what he considered to be the wishes of the international community above the national security interests of the United States. I fear with these most-recent ill-chosen remarks, Secretary Kerry has proven those concerns well founded,� Cruz said in a floor speech. �Secretary Kerry has thus proven himself unsuitable for his position and that before any further harm is done to our alliance with Israel, he should offer President Obama his resignation and the President should accept it.�


Cruz said that the term �apartheid� is connected too closely to discrimination in South Africa and that it had no place in the debate about Israel and Palestine.

�The term �apartheid� means �apart� � different, isolated � the state of the victims of apartheid with which the Jews are all too familiar. The notion that Israel would go down that path, and so face the same condemnation that met South Africa, is unconscionable,� Cruz said. �The fact that Secretary Kerry sees nothing wrong with making such a statement on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day demonstrates a shocking lack of sensitivity to the incendiary and damaging nature of his rhetoric.�

Kerry has made the Middle East process a priority of his stewardship at State, though any comprehensive compromise continues to elude Israel and Palestine. He said in the closed-door meeting that at some point he may present his own solution and tell leaders of the two parties to �take it or leave it,� according to the Daily Beast report.

I'll donate to your PAC anytime, Pat.

U.S. Senator Ted Cruz Says Minimum Wage Act Kills Jobs and American Energy Renaissance Act Will Create Jobs






Last Updated on Thursday, 01 May 2014 07:25 April 29, 2014- WASHINGTON, DC -- U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, today introduced his American Energy Renaissance Act (see S. 2170) as an amendment to replace job-killing minimum wage legislation. Sen. Cruz�s American Energy Renaissance Act will spark economic growth and create jobs for American families.

�Those who are being hurt the most in the Obama economy are the most vulnerable among us � young people, Hispanics, African-Americans and single moms,� Sen. Cruz said. �They are the ones paying the price for the great stagnation in which we find ourselves. The undeniable truth is if the president succeeded in raising the minimum wage, it would cost jobs from the most vulnerable.�

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that raising the minimum wage could cause the loss of up to one million jobs. Additionally, in March, more than 500 economists, including 3 Nobel laureates, sent a letter to Congress that said: �The minimum wage is�a poorly targeted anti-poverty measure� and asked federal policymakers to �examine creative, comprehensive policy solutions that truly help address poverty, boost incomes from work, and increase upward mobility by fostering growth in our nation�s economy.�

�The discussion before this chamber is whether to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour,� Sen. Cruz continued. �But, even if it passed, the real Obama minimum wage is zero dollars and zero cents. Far better than the promise of $10.10 an hour, is $46.98 � the wage Americans can earn in the oil and gas industry. We ought to come together with bipartisan unanimity to say we will stand with the American people to bring millions of jobs, raise median income and make it easier for people who are struggling to achieve the American Dream. We should all come together and vote on the American Energy Renaissance Act, to remove government barriers and open up new federal lands and resources to develop high-paying, promising jobs that expand opportunity.�

Sen. Cruz also noted that minimum wage jobs allow people to get their foot on the first rung of the economic ladder, but if the wage increase is passed, many Americans will lose the chance to work altogether.

In his remarks, the Senator noted how Texans are already reaping the benefits of the American Energy Renaissance, and showing the rest of the nation how our energy resources are creating countless job opportunities, helping once-struggling communities thrive, and sparking personal income growth. For example:

�In the 23 counties atop the Eagle Ford shale in South Texas, average wages for all citizens have grown by 14.6 percent annually since 2005.
�The top five counties in the Eagle Ford shale have experienced an average 63 percent annual rate of wage growth.
�According to the Texas Oil and Gas Association, the industry directly employed 416,000 employees in 2013 who averaged $120,000 a year in wages, and producers paid $11.5 billion in royalties to 570,000 families (about $20,000 per household).
�In Texas, the average pay for an entry-level truck driver ranges from $36,000 to $45,000, but rises to $50,000 to $70,000 in the oil field.
�The opportunity to flourish can extend all over America, creating up to 1 million jobs, if Washington will simply get out of the way.
In March, Sen. Cruz introduced the American Energy Renaissance Act to take hold of this potential. This legislation would approve the development of the Keystone pipeline and streamline the approval of other energy infrastructure projects, open up more federal lands for development both onshore and offshore, stop federal regulation of hydraulic fracturing, facilitate the expansion of domestic refining capacity, rein in energy regulations, and expand U.S. energy exports.

I got your back. Just get him national.

He will be. He will survive vetting that the others won't.

As of now Pat, he doesn't have the needed loot. You know what that gets you.

Sure. We may just have to have another Democrat in the Whitehouse. Wallstreet is enjoying the one we have now.

WHAT?

I sent him money for Pete's sake.....

How could I resist?

I'll send money too...if he gets national.

Right now, he's just the center on Pat's basketball team.

I'll send him some more.

He hasn't got a blimp has he?


Or a zeppelin?

The biggest book deal ever is a start.

My God...you are a TMZ fan.

I had to look that up.

Just teasing a buddy.

If he goes national, I'll support him,Pat.

I have a call into Rove.

John Boehner makes Ted Cruz's day by forming select committee on #Benghazi






In what may be the first ever Congressional committee formed exclusively to investigate a hashtag, multiple reporters (Sam Stein, Chuck Todd, and Dana Bash) are saying House Speaker John Boehner has decided to create a House Select Committee to investigate Benghazi. According to the reports, the committee will be chaired by Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, who, among other things, has the most amazing hair in Congress.

As you might expect, shadow House Speaker Ted Cruz is thrilled:




About time! http://t.co/... Let's find out the truth about what happened in #Benghazi!

� @SenTedCruz

Republicans are expected to formally announce the committee later today. As to why they are creating the committee, they will point to a recently released email from White House Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes in which Rhodes listed talking points for then-U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice's Sunday show appearances following the attack in Benghazi. Rhodes' email, which was not exclusively about Benghazi, said Rice should communicate that anti-American activities in the Middle East were a result of a video and not a result of a broader failure of U.S. policy.

Republicans believe that the email is a new piece of evidence proving that the White House doctored talking points in the wake of Benghazi in order to steal the election from Mitt Romney. It's true that the talking points were based on inaccurate information, but as Dave Weigel has pointed out, they were consistent with information coming from the CIA to the White House. Moreover, it's absurd to claim that the Rice's Sunday show appearance was the deciding factor in the 2012 election, especially in light of Mitt Romney's incredible and repeated bungling of Benghazi from a political perspective.



Republicans will also probably cite testimony this week from Brigadier Gen. Robert Lovell who said that he knew instantly the attack in Benghazi was not a result of a protest or video and was unhappy that we did not mobilize a military response to save the lives of the Americans who were killed in Bengahzi. They are highlighting Lovell because they believe he adds credibility to their argument that President Obama (and his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton) willfully allowed the Americans to die by refusing to order a mission to save them.



What they won't say is that Lovell was in Germany at the time of the attacks and had no special knowledge about what was going on in Benghazi�and that he also doesn't have any belief that a specific course of action would have saved any lives. As retiring Republican House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon said: "Lovell did not further the investigation or reveal anything new." But the notion that the commander in chief is responsible for the deaths of Americans is too juicy for them to pass up, so they will pursue it for as long as they possibly can.



The new committee will cost taxpayers millions of dollars, adding to the millions that the GOP's probes have already cost.

Now that is good news.

Rove said no.

Bump