The News with Sen. Cruz - May 2, 2014
The Senate is back in session, and this week we have been working hard to protect liberty at home and abroad.
Recently, Secretary Kerry suggested that Israel could become an “apartheid state.” I emphatically disagree and firmly believe it is in our national interest to stand with Israel as a sovereign nation and ally in the Middle East.
On the home front, I advocated for replacing the President’s proposed job-killing minimum wage hike with my American Energy Renaissance Act that would help create millions more jobs, growth, and opportunity for families in Texas and across the United States.
Please keep reading for more.
All the best,
Ted Cruz
Calling for Secretary Kerry’s Resignation
On Monday, Sen. Cruz spoke on the Senate floor to call for U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s resignation following the secretary’s comments at the Trilateral Commission that Israel could become an “apartheid state.”
A few highlights from Sen. Cruz’s floor speech are below.
“There is no place for this word in the context of the State of Israel. 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. The United States should be aggressively asserting that Israel can never be made an apartheid nation while America exists, because America will be with Israel regardless of the status of any diplomatic process.
“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. It is my belief that 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.”
Read the full release here.
American Energy Renaissance Act Will Increase Jobs and Wages
On Tuesday, Sen. Cruz introduced his American Energy Renaissance Act (see S. 2170) as an amendment to replace job-killing minimum wage legislation. In a speech on the Senate floor he explained how energy jobs could jumpstart the economy.
“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 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.”
See the full release here.
Addressing Campaign Finance Reform in Senate Rules Committee
Below are a few highlights:
“This topic is a topic of great import. The entire Bill of Rights, the First Amendment is the most important, it is the foundational right of every other right that is protected of citizens.
“And I will say that in the issue of campaign finance reform, this is perhaps the most misunderstood issue in all of politics because campaign finance reform restrictions are always pitched as let's prevent corruption, let's hold politicians accountable, and they do exactly the opposite. Every single restriction this body puts in place is designed to do one thing: protect incumbent politicians.
“Our current system makes no sense….A far better system would be to allow individuals unlimited contributions to candidates and require immediate disclosure.
“And I'll say this in closing. I agree very much with Justice Hugo Black who famously said with regards to the First Amendment, the words 'Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech' means exactly what it says, it means no law. And we should be vigorous protecting the rights of individual citizens to be engaged in the political process and to hold every one of us on both sides of the aisle accountable. It's the only thing that keeps our democratic process working.”
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