Sen. Ted Cruz: On Making the Argument

Sen. Ted Cruz just finished speaking at the TPPF policy orientation.

What happened in November?!?

• November 6th was a very ugly day.
• This election was not a popular affirmation of Obama policy.
• Republicans didn't make the argument
• 47% encapsulated the narrative of this election; Romney made a fatal mistake in writing them off instead of speaking to them about uplifting themselves.

What's the path forward?!?

• Opportunity Conservatism -- Talk about policy in terms of economic ascent.
• Conservative economic policies make people's lives better.
• The policies of the Left have "wreaked devastation" on minorities and the poor.
• "School Choice is about giving poor kids the same options as rich kids."
• Big Business does great with Big Government.
• The rich do just fine in socialist countries; you just don't see new rich people.
• Small Business is the biggest threat to big business.

Texas Must Lead:

• Texas is America on Steroids.
• People don't necessarily connect the policy environment of Texas with our economic success.
• "It is my goal to make the Texas Legislature's job much more difficult."

Upcoming policy debates:

• "The only hope of have any sort of policy shift between now and 2014 is to maximize our few point of leverage to maximize policy concession."
• Divided Government -- Whoever owns the default has the advantage.
• "THE DEBT CEILING DEBATE HAS ZERO TO DO WITH DEFAULT ON THE FEDERAL DEBT."
• With a  backbone, we can extract meaningful concessions on spending and growth.

Update: Here's the video....