Sen. Cruz Addresses Texas Farm Bureau; Calls for Further Opening of International Markets to Texas Farmers, Ranchers, Businesses

FRISCO, Texas – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) today addressed the Texas Farm Bureau’s 84th Annual Meeting. There, he discussed the provisions of the Senate’s tax reform bill, including repealing Obamacare’s unconstitutional individual mandate and expanding 529s to cover K-12 expenses. He also discussed expanding trade in NAFTA renegotiations, and its importance to Texas agriculture and Texas’ economy.

“Last week, the Senate took a significant step toward fulfilling our promise to provide tax relief for hardworking Americans, including farmers all across our country,” Sen. Cruz said. “This historic bill significantly lowers our corporate tax rate – currently the highest in the developed world – which will bring needed jobs back to America and up to $2.9 trillion in capital back to our economy. Additionally, this legislation brings relief to working families, doubling the child tax credit and providing rate cuts for individual taxpayers in all brackets.” 

Sen. Cruz continued, discussing the provisions he fought include in the tax reform bill, including expanding 529’s to cover K-12 expenses, and repealing Obamacare’s individual mandate. 

“This bill also includes my amendment expanding the already incredibly popular 529 College Savings Plans to include K-12 elementary and secondary school tuition for public, private, and religious schools, and K-12 educational expenses for homeschool students. And under this bill, we finally repealed Obamacare’s unconstitutional individual mandate to purchase health insurance. Repealing this mandate provides 6.5 million Americans who have been unfairly fined each year by the IRS immediate relief, and provides $338 billion in individual tax relief over the next ten years.” 

Sen. Cruz also discussed the importance of expanding international trade to the agriculture industry and Texas’ economy as a whole.

“As Texans know firsthand, increasing trade requires more than renegotiating NAFTA,” Sen. Cruz said. “We must also pursue additional trade agreements with our major trading partners around the globe. In my view, if we end up with increased international trade and increased access to foreign markets, that’s a good outcome. If we have decreased international trade and decreased access to foreign markets, that’s a bad outcome. There are over 2.2 million jobs in the state of Texas that depend on international trade and when foreign markets are opened up Texas does exceptionally well. Our farmers, our ranchers, our small businesses, our manufactures, we compete and consistently win on the global markets. And so, my focus is on substance and results. If we can further open up foreign markets, that benefits the state of Texas – as well as the entire United States.”

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