Sen. Cruz on ‘Squawk Box’: Democrats Pour Gasoline on the Fire

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) today joined CNBC’s ‘Squawk Box’ to discuss President Biden’s inflation crisis, the Democrats’ ‘Build Back Broke’ spending bill, and the administration’s unlawful COVID vaccine mandates. Read highlights of Sen. Cruz’s interview below.

WATCH: Sen. Cruz Hits Biden Inflation Crisis on Squawk Box: Democrats’ Solution is to Pour Gasoline on the Fire

On President Biden’s inflation crisis and Democrats’ reckless spending, Sen. Cruz said:

“Inflation is raging across the country, the November numbers have inflation at 6.8 percent. That’s the highest inflation this country's seen since 1982, nearly 40 years ago. At the end of the day, it is not complicated. When you spend trillions of dollars you don't have, when you print money, when you borrow trillions of dollars, when you expand the money supply, you drive up inflation. That cause and effect has been true from the dawn of time. It's true now. And you know, you mentioned that the debt ceiling, the Senate voted on yesterday, the House voted on early this morning. The current debt is $28.9 trillion. Today, Joe Biden is preparing to sign a bill raising that by $2.5 trillion, the largest increase in the debt ceiling in the history of our country—it is unprecedented. Two and a half trillion dollars with the stroke of a pen, and that doesn’t pay for a penny of the Bernie Sanders socialist budget, what they call ‘Build Back Better,’ what more and more Americans are calling ‘Build Back Broke.’ It is trillions more somewhere between $3, $4, $5 trillion on top of the $2.5 trillion, on top of the $28.9 trillion. The inflation fire is raging, and the Democrats solution, sadly, is just to pour gasoline on it. They want more of what's causing inflation, and if they succeed with that, we’re going to get a whole lot more inflation, which is hurting the most vulnerable among us, particularly seniors. Seniors get hammered with inflation, and this White House doesn’t seem to care.”

[…]

“If you look at the 2017 tax cut, that tax cut was focused on jobs, it was focused on tax cuts on job creators, and the purpose of it was to create more jobs to drive up wages, to bring manufacturing back to America. It worked extraordinarily well. We saw by 2019, we had the lowest rate of unemployment in 40 years with the lowest rate of African American unemployment ever recorded, the lowest rate of Hispanic unemployment ever recorded. We had median wages rising, we had poverty dropping; it succeeded. By the way, their line that ‘it wasn’t paid for’ when we cut taxes in 2017, the next year, federal tax revenue went up, and the next year, federal tax revenue went up and it went up every year after that, so it generated more revenue because of growth and economic productivity and more jobs. Contrast that with the ‘Build Back Broke’, you know, there’s actually a big tax cut in ‘Build Back Broke,’ but it’s a tax cut for Democratic donors. It’s a tax cut for millionaires and billionaires in big blue states, because one of the most expensive parts of the bill is they repeal the cap on deducting state and local taxes. Now contrast the two: The 2017 tax cuts focused on job creators—more jobs for working men and women. The Democrats repealing the SALT deduction [cap] doesn’t create a single job, but I’ll tell you what it does. It pays off the rich Democratic donors in blue states, number one, and number two, it encourages local politicians to raise taxes more. The Democrats are not fighting for working men and women, they’re not fighting for the senior citizen’s Social Security who’s got a fixed budget, who with inflation now is seeing the cost of food going through the roof, is seeing the cost of gasoline go through the roof, the cost of houses and cars and mortgages, and rent all of that going through the roof. Giving a tax giveaway to billionaires who are Democratic donors doesn’t benefit them at all. But it’s what the Democratic priority is—they take care of their buddies in government.”

On President Biden’s unlawful COVID vaccine mandates, Sen. Cruz said:

“We’ve seen that Democratic politicians are authoritarians. They will control your life, they will order you to obey, and they will destroy you if you don’t. Let’s take the state of New York. Just this week, sadly, the Supreme Court did not take a case, an emergency appeal, out of New York of doctors and nurses, frontline medical workers who had been heroically fighting this pandemic from the beginning. They’re now facing a vaccine mandate. These doctors and nurses are choosing not to take the vaccine for religious reasons, and they’re facing an order to be fired. Number one, they’re going to be fired. Number two, the New York government, in really a punitive vindictive way, is saying, ‘We’re going to fire you and you’re ineligible for unemployment. So we are just going to punish you.’ I’ve got to say, that that is wrong. My view in vaccines are simple. I’m pro vaccine. I’ve been vaccinated, my family’s been vaccinated. I encourage people to get vaccinated, particularly if you’re in a vulnerable population, whether very elderly or you have diabetes, you’re overweight. I think being vaccinated makes sense. But I also believe in individual liberty, individual responsibility. It’s your business to make medical decisions in your life and no government petty tyrant has the right to order you to undergo a medical procedure and Joe Biden and the Democrats are perfectly comfortable saying it doesn’t matter.”

[…]

“As I travel the country, literally every day, there hasn’t been a day that I’m not stopped by soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines, that I’m not stopped by airline pilots and flight attendants or doctors or nurses, or firefighters or cops who come up and they say, ‘Thank you for fighting against this vaccine mandate.’ Let’s take Chicago. The Chicago police union says that upwards of a third of Chicago police officers are refusing to comply with a vaccine mandate. Joe Biden was asked what should be done about it. He said, ‘Fire them, fire a third of the cops in Chicago.’ By the way, he said the same thing about firefighters in New York City. I’m proud to stand with Chicago Police Union, I’m proud to stand with a New York Firefighters Union. These vaccine [mandates] are wrong. The government has no business ordering you to make health care choices that ought to be a choice for you and your doctor, and you should weigh the costs and benefits for your life and your health."

[…]

“In airlines, we’re seeing rolling delays one after the other because they have shortages of pilots and crews, and they have shortages of air traffic controllers. These policies make no sense. By the way, when they get challenged in court, we’ve seen plaintiffs go in and challenge. Biden has four vaccine mandates: One for active duty military, one for federal civilian employees, one for federal contractors, and one for private employers with 100 or more employees. When these get challenged in court, over and over again, the courts are striking them down, concluding that they’re illegal, they’re unconstitutional. They exceed the authority of the federal government.”

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