Ted Cruz’s Only Hope for Indiana and Beyond: “The Government didn’t build the American Dream…”

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This has been a tough week for Ted Cruz. He lost 5 states by double digits. Of course they were all northeastern states which means there’s a snowball’s chance in Hell that they will be landing in the red column in November. Nonetheless Trump won them fair and square and he appears to have momentum.

So now there’s Indiana. The numbers are such that if Cruz does not win Indiana, it becomes almost impossible for him to stop Trump from getting to 1237. Given the glowing coverage that Trump gets from the mainstream media, as well as his cheerleaders in the erstwhile conservative media such as Drudge, Rush, and Hannity, Cruz finds himself very much fighting an uphill battle.

He can’t outTrump Trump. He can’t accuse Trump of lying – despite the fact that he is. He can’t accuse Trump of seeking to intimidate delegates – which he is doing. He can’t make nonsensical appeals to uninformed voters’ base instincts – because that’s not who he (Cruz) is. No, the only chance Ted Cruz has to win Indiana – and California beyond that – is to make his pitch for the American Dream.

Basically, it’s that Dream that is behind so many voters flocking to Trump in the first place… that along with our celebrity worship culture where many elevate celebrities to a demigod state, regardless of their less than godlike behavior. Americans are angry that opportunities for advancement are disappearing. Americans are angry that every widget found in Wal-Mart is manufactured in China and every tee shirt in Pakistan. Americans are angry that an American icon, Ford, would reduce production here just to add production in Mexico. And Indianans are angry that Carrier would close a plant in Indiana just to open one in Mexico. The bottom line is, many Americans wonder what happened to a country where hard work and innovation were rewarded and where half the population was not on welfare of one sort of another.

One guy seems to be harnessing their anger and making it so they don’t feel like no one is listening… and that guy is Donald Trump. Ted Cruz needs to jump into the scrum. Ted Cruz needs to be crystal clear that he understands what they are feeling… but he shouldn’t pander while doing so… or he’ll be seen like Hillary trying to use an MTA card. No, Cruz has to talk about their issues, but do so in the context of what is causing them. Manufacturing is indeed moving the Mexico and China… but it’s not because companies like Ford and Carrier hate Americans… it’s because the government has made it so difficult for them to operate and earn a profit in the United States. And it’s not just labor costs, because Ford could have saved half its labor costs simply building the Focus in Alabama or Kentucky rather than Michigan. No, the much bigger problem for companies trying to manufacture and keep jobs in the United States is regulation.

Ted Cruz needs to point out that it’s not malice that encourages American companies to build products outside our borders… it’s government. Federal regulation costs the US $2 trillion a year… Looked at in jobs, just half that total would translate to 10 million new jobs at an average salary of $75,000 each. Unfortunately, this regulatory burden not only makes it more difficult for American companies to build here, it scares off international companies who might otherwise invest in the United States. Fundamentally, if the government would loosen the regulatory yoke and unleash American industry, our economy would once again dominate the world.

And then there is the IRS. Because at 40%, the United States has the highest corporate income tax rate in the developed world, companies find it less competitive to invest in the United States. Not only that, American companies have $2 trillion in profits sitting in subsidiaries around the world that they can’t bring home because it would cost them too much in taxes. That $2 trillion alone would provide 2 years of paychecks for 15 million Americans at $50,000 a year. By eliminating the IRS and implementing the Fair Tax – which Cruz likes but doesn’t push – a President Cruz would welcome trillions of dollars of investment in the United States from around the world.  Cruz’s 10% income tax would have a similar, albeit a somewhat smaller impact.

At the end of the day, the only chance Cruz has to win Indiana and keep Trump from becoming the nominee is to clearly and forcefully articulate that the enemy of prosperity is not Carrier moving a plant to Mexico or Burger King moving its headquarters to Canada… it’s government strangling the American Dream one regulation at a time, it’s tax rates that handicap the country relative to the rest of the world. And in setting up that argument, he has to highlight the fact that Donald Trump’s solution of trying to tax Carrier back into the country is not the answer because for every Carrier that makes the news, there are hundreds of other companies around the world that aren’t located here and never will be because taxes and regulations simply make it too expensive to invest in the United States and create American jobs.

Donald Trump wants to scare companies into staying in the United States and employing Americans. Ted Cruz wants to inspire companies, both American and foreign, to invest in the United States and employ American workers. That’s a big difference and Cruz has to make that clear to voters. Trump wants to use the government to coerce companies to do what he wants while Cruz wants to lighten the government burden and allow American companies and American workers do what they do best, which is innovate and build their way to prosperity. The government did not invent the air conditioner, Willis Carrier did. The government did not bring the assembly line to the automobile, Henry Ford did. But government regulations have sent the companies those two men founded scurrying south of the border to build products in their names.  That is the shame of America in 2016… America used to be a place for entrepreneurship, innovation, invention and most of all, prosperity.  It’s not today because of government.  The American Dream used to inspire both Americans and the rest of the world.  It doesn’t do that much today because the government has smothered it…

And that’s the message Cruz needs to get out:  “The government needs to get out of the prosperity killing business and out of the dream killing business… I understand that and I’ll make it happen… Lifelong crony capitalist and John Boehner’s golfing and texting buddy Donald Trump won’t.” 

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Vince,
It is obvious you have never listened to an entire campaign speech by Donald Trump.
One of his position papers is on taxes.
In it he notes this under a Trump Administration:

Too many companies – from great American brands to innovative startups – are leaving America, either directly or through corporate inversions. The Democrats want to outlaw inversions, but that will never work. Companies leaving is not the disease, it is the symptom. Politicians in Washington have let America fall from the best corporate tax rate in the industrialized world in the 1980’s (thanks to Ronald Reagan) to the worst rate in the industrialized world. That is unacceptable. Under the Trump plan, America will compete with the world and win by cutting the corporate tax rate to 15%, taking our rate from one of the worst to one of the best.

This lower tax rate cannot be for big business alone; it needs to help the small businesses that are the true engine of our economy. Right now, freelancers, sole proprietors, unincorporated small businesses and pass-through entities are taxed at the high personal income tax rates. This treatment stifles small businesses. It also stifles tax reform because efforts to reduce loopholes and deductions available to the very rich and special interests end up hitting small businesses and job creators as well. The Trump plan addresses this challenge head on with a new business income tax rate within the personal income tax code that matches the 15% corporate tax rate to help these businesses, entrepreneurs and freelancers grow and prosper.

No business of any size, from a Fortune 500 to a mom and pop shop to a freelancer living job to job, will pay more than 15% of their business income in taxes. This lower rate makes corporate inversions unnecessary by making America’s tax rate one of the best in the world.

As to gov’t red tape that strangles business here Donald Trump told a Dallas crowd:

[I will] get rid of the regulations that are just destroying us.

He wrote:

[T]he greatest threat to the American Dream is the idea that dreamers need close government scrutiny and control. Job one for us is to make sure the public sector does a limited job, and no more.

Later in the same writing he said:

First: Get government out of activities it can’t do well. (A list of thing government doesn’t do well is a very long list.)
Second: Get government back in the business of providing for public convenience (transportation, public works) and safety (police and firefighters), and make sure it does so efficiently. Then judge its efforts by visible, definable results and fine-tune as needed.

Why can’t Sen. Ted Cruz say these things you want to hear from him?
Because he is pro-TPP.
He is a globalist.
He actually said, to get votes, that he (as president) would build a wall and Donald Trump would pay for it.
In other words he thinks building a wall is a joke, a punchline.
When Cruz defended a Chinese company that stole blueprints from an American tire company he showed he cannot now stand strong against China which holds over $1 trillion US debt.

@Nanny G:

Why can’t Sen. Ted Cruz say these things you want to hear from him?

He has. You seemingly neglected to listen.

Because he is pro-TPP.

Not true. He voted for it before he learned of the back room deals cut by Boehner and Company with the Democrats. Then he voted against it.
https://ballotpedia.org/2016_presidential_candidates_on_the_Trans-Pacific_Partnership_trade_deal

He is a globalist.

You mean like Trump who, when he had the option of creating American jobs making his shirts and ties, chose to send those jobs to Mexico and China?

He actually said, to get votes, that he (as president) would build a wall and Donald Trump would pay for it.

A joke. Not like Trumps lie that he will force Mexico to pay for the wall.

In other words he thinks building a wall is a joke, a punchline.

Nope. But like many of us who still function with a rational thinking brain, he knows Trump is a joke.

When Cruz defended a Chinese company that stole blueprints from an American tire company he showed he cannot now stand strong against China which holds over $1 trillion US debt

.

I find it absolutely amazing at how uninformed you Trumpeteers are. Do you ever research anything Trump et al claims?

https://www.texastribune.org/2012/06/22/ted-cruz-and-china-fact-box/

The largest corporations are paying a far smaller share of taxes now than they have in the past. They’ll likely whine about the terrible unfairness of it all so long as they’re required to pay anything. Fact Sheet: Corporate Tax Rates

Additionally, they aren’t leaving the United States only as tax dodges. They’re leaving the United States to exploit the availability of plentiful cheap labor, born of poverty and desperation. They can pay local wages that American workers couldn’t possibly live on, and then export their products back to the United States without bothersome tariffs, underselling U.S. based competitors that employ American workers, while still widening their profit margin. What they leave behind them are workers and communities less able to support themselves and more dependent on programs supported by the very taxes that the corporations don’t want to pay.

Carrier Corporation? That’s a hot topic in Indiana. It’s a current example of corporate priorities and behaviors, and how they affect mainstream America.

@Greg:

You are a paid Hillary troll, aren’t you, Greg? “Americans for Tax Fairness” is a disgusting collection of roughly 30 leftist, union and “progressive” groups that propagandize for ever increasing taxes. They are about as “fair” on tax policy as obamacare is “affordable”.

I still wait for a leftist to explain how a tax system designed by Marx for the express purpose of crushing the middle class into poverty so as to collapse a capitalist economy and usher in communism is “fair”.

The report came out in April that the US Dept of Treasury is taking the highest amount of taxes in history – yet we still have another federal deficit this year. When do the people paying the taxes, as well as the businesses, get to say, “Enough!”?

Every dollar that is taken from individuals in the form of taxes is a dollar that cannot be saved or invested. For companies, every dollar taken in raxes os one that cannot be used to grow the business, hire employees, and invest in new tech and equipment. The high tax and overregulation of Obama’s leftist policies has resulted in an incredibly anemic average annual GDP growth of 1.55%, with not a year reaching 3% during his presidency.

The recent revelation via the Panama Papers of John Kerry shielding millions of dollars in at least 11 offshore tax havens – while supporting higher individual and corporate tax rates – is yet anothet glaring example of the despicable hypocrisy of the adherents of leftist ideology.

Corporations cannot exist without making a profit. Higher taxes, coupled with burdemsome regulation led Toyota to decide to move their US headquarters from California to Texas. The $15/hr mandate from the leftist Seattle city council resulted in the loss of an estimated 10,000 jobs, which migrated outside the city limits.

The arrogance of leftists who think that because THEY don’t believe it is fair for some people to have more than others – despite the difference in effort exerted to earn one’s living – is despicable. The current tax system is inherently unfair, and it is long past time for it to be changed.

@Nanny G: Have you listened to Cruz address these things? I did. LAST SEPTEMBER.

@Nanny G: #1

Because he is pro-TPP.
He is a globalist.

Nanny G, while I liked that Cruz slapped around the Rep establishment, his agreeing with ‘fast-tacking’ TPP for Obama was a major indicator — not that he wasn’t an ideologue conservative, but that he actually did not grasp the most important subtleties of what TPP would mean for America. That was a major fault. As I’ve written before, both Cruz and Rubio voted for fast tracking TPP – that was a turning point. At least it was for me.

International trade is a complex game. The globalists and bankers with their puppet, the goof-in-chief leading the campaign, want TPP. It would be a major, major change and yet most of America is getting ‘smoked’ on it by its leaders. Most Americans are too busy trying to pay the rent and aren’t going to grasp the consequences until it is too late. The kind of ‘give-up’ that is intended under TPP will place too much power in off-shore hands – the too-big-to-fails.

I’ve always supported the concept of free trade, but free trade does not exist in today’s international economy. A very Few politicians have voiced any pushback on TPP that is coherent. Cruz is not one of them.

I’m also disappointed that Cruz has slid away from a former major past stand – the elimination of the IRS – that alone, if true, would get him votes even from Democrats.

I strongly feel that slashing taxes on corporations is the best way to ‘invite’ them to remain in America. I don’t agree with Trump’s claim that he would use tariffs against them, but he’s pragmatic, and will probably get appropriate counsel on it before he acts. Personally, I like that he’s not soaked in ideology. He’s succeeded in building a very valuable company by using common sense.

He actually understands what will get the economy turned around. I’m not sure anyone else running really does. Extreme Ideologies of the kind we witness every day don’t make for successful job creation. All depends on what one’s priorities are.

@James Raider:

I don’t agree with Trump’s claim that he would use tariffs against them, but he’s pragmatic,

And for 8 years we have been told that Obama is “pragmatic.” Have you not had a belly full of pragmatism?

and will probably get appropriate counsel on it before he acts.

When you, like our resident radical left winger, Greg, has to use the word probably, it means you’re not sure. This is our nation’s future we’re discussing. Not some crap shoot in the alley.

.

He’s succeeded in building a very valuable company by using common sense.

No, he’s build a business based on his father’s business/government connections from building low to moderate income housing. Even when he built Trump Tower, his father guaranteed the loans.

@Nanny G: #1
Nanny G, your comment also reminds me someone I spoke with a few days ago who urgently needs to expand his business – he needs to hire at least 2 people in what would be good paying jobs. He’s struggling because when he started to look into HIRING, he became overwhelmed with the ‘bureaucracy’s paperwork’ and costs, then his accountants gave him the good news on all the other overhead he would have to cover making the hiring too onerous – now he’s between a rock and a hard place.

@retire05: #7

And for 8 years we have been told that Obama is “pragmatic.”

retire05, I really don’t think so.

Obama’s socialist/Marxist make-up AND his background, AND his actions in office, don’t leave room for one cell of pragmatism.

Ideological robots don’t pragmatists make.

Bill Clinton had some pragmatism, because he was totally into enhancing his personal lifestyle. America took a distant 2nd seat to his own needs and wants, but he had some pragmatism.

One of the things about Trump that is appealing, is his love of Nation. That will come first in his governance – not money or special interests.

@Pete, #4:

The report came out in April that the US Dept of Treasury is taking the highest amount of taxes in history

The nation has the highest nominal GDP in history, the highest per capita GDP history, and the highest fiscal expenditures in history. What should we expect?

Tax cuts have to be paid for with spending cuts, or they just run up higher deficits. Voodoo economics still does not prevail over common sense arithmetic.

I still wait for a leftist to explain how a tax system designed by Marx for the express purpose of crushing the middle class into poverty so as to collapse a capitalist economy and usher in communism is “fair”.

America’s era of greatest middle and working class prosperity coincided with a time when the tax schedule was far more progressive than today. The reversal of that lengthy trend and the era of rapidly growing public debt has coincided with repeated tax cuts at the top end, the most rapid upward transfer of wealth in U.S. history, decades of stagnant or falling real wages, the elimination of employee benefits, and the offshoring of U.S. manufacturing jobs for the sake of increased corporate profits.

Every dollar that is taken from individuals in the form of taxes is a dollar that cannot be saved or invested.

Traditional savers are being rewarded with interest rates so low it’s an insult. The stock market is a rigged game that favors the wealthy, while being about as safe for the little guy as placing bets in a gambling casino. Most people are lucky to be earning enough to have anything to save or invest to begin with. They’re doing well just to stay out of debt.

I don’t believe a healthy, sustainable economy is built on a bedrock of investments. I believe it’s built on a bedrock of productive, well-paid workers who earn high enough wages for the goods and services they produce to allow them to be demand-driving consumers. That’s the foundation that holds up everything. You could knock the top off the pyramid and it would still stand. Something else happens, if you knock out the foundation. This is not Marxism. It’s reality.

@Greg:
Without the “bedrock” of investments you don’t get jobs for anyone. No investment no jobs. I’m just a regular person who “invests”. It will be a big chunk of my retirement. If I am successful I do better and so does the government. You see they take a chunk of the profits I make if I am successful. Even though they took no risk and did nothing to make the profit. But they sure notice if I made money because they are right there saying hand it over. If I lose money they aren’t there to bail me out either.
By the way it’s been Obama’s economy for about 8 years now and income inequality has increased under his watch. Poverty is up and so is food stamp usage. While labor force participation is down. National debt way up. We pay hundred of billions of dollars to service that debt, it only gets worse if interest rates go up. Yes I’d like to see them rise but it’s a catch 22. You voted for this, I did not.

@Mully: #11

it only gets worse if interest rates go up.

Mully, it is a tell-tale of the unhealthy state of the vast majority of businesses in America, that they cannot support other than close to zero interest rates.

We should be running at 4% growth, but that hasn’t occurred for eight years. Meanwhile the new normal is a slaughter of Savers, pushing/forcing them toward risk investing, and into a game they know nothing about.

Consistency of position looks like this: Bernie Sanders in 2010, on GE and Jeffrey Immelt.

It’s not that capitalism or investing are bad things. It’s that some of the biggest corporations have no loyalties or moral values that override the prime directive to maximize profits, by doing whatever you can get away with.

@Greg: Jeff Immelt was Obama’s jobs czar. Of all the people he could have picked he chose wisely? What does that say about his judgment?

I’ve always supported Obama. That doesn’t mean he hasn’t made his share of wrong moves. Criticizing what Immelt has sometimes done doesn’t mean he hasn’t also done useful, positive things, either.

My general view is that you have to optimize and regulate the playing field for the good of people in general. You have to do that taking human nature and the nature of capitalism into account, because those things are unlikely to change. You don’t optimize the field to the maximum benefit of the sharks and the wolves. They don’t need for things to be tilted in their favor. I think that position is central to Bernie Sanders’ thinking.

@Greg:

They’re leaving the United States to exploit the availability of plentiful cheap labor, born of poverty and desperation.

Not true. labor is not a major cost in products such as T shirts. It costs more to ship the cloth to Mexico and the finished products back to the US than the cost of the US labor was to make the shirt in the US. It is all tax breaks. Say they have a factory in S. Carolina making t shirts. They can build a new modern plant in Mexico and get a tax break for new investment on their US taxes and they get a tax benefit for writing off the old factory in S Carolina and they can ship the shirts into the US with no tariffs, so why not do that. The labor cost is not a factor. Look at one of the latest charades. They are now going to raise chickens in the US, kill them in the US then refrigerate and ship them to China for processing and ship them back to the US for sale. The labor of a trained processor of chickens is about 4 or 5 minutes, at the most, per chicken. Even at $15 hr, that’s only $1 per chicken. There is no way a chicken can be refrigerated, shipped to China, processed (still 4 or 5 minutes) refrigerated and shipped back to the US and save money on the labor. Just not possible. (I guess we could get John involved and use Solar power to refrigerate) it’s all tax advantages to doing it that way. Trump has long recognized this and has stated his plans to make the taxes more favorable. As Cruz has tanked, he’s now adopted the ‘me too’ philosophy and claims he will do the same things.

@James Raider: appealing ” love of nation” Bullshit He didn’t serve when he could have and he called our POW’S losers.
He’s a narcissist who loves himself and his money much more than his country.

Semper Fi—Gen.Mattis for POTUS.–A man who has proven he loves his country.

@Greg:
Your terms of optimize and regulate are not compatible. Obama is one who tries to pick winners and losers. He is much better at picking losers. His green energy picks are a great example of wasting taxpayer money. Recall shovel ready wasn’t so shovel ready. I am much more for a free market that is free, not a quasi government approved market that chases businesses out of the country.
Want businesses to stay here? Make it more business friendly not less with more government. We the consumer will pick the winners and losers with our wallets.

@Mully: “We the consumer will pick the winners and losers with our wallets”.

A wallet made from a country utilizing forced child labor with leather from a cow who’s carcass was tossed in the drinking water?

@Richard Wheeler: The General would make a wonderful candidate except he doesn’t want anything to do with politics

@James Raider: I’m also disappointed that Cruz has slid away from a former major past stand – the elimination of the IRS –
Go look again unless you can no longer see through the Trump kool-aid blur.

He actually understands what will get the economy turned around. I’m not sure anyone else running really does.

Seriously threatening companies without having a firm stance on regulation and taxation isn’t going to stop the exit.

Come around have some coffee read what you wrote you have been assimilated, the conservatives will welcome you back.

@Ajay42302:
No one forces you to buy that product. You made my point.

@Richard Wheeler:

He didn’t serve when he could have

Liberal lies. Trump could not serve because he was turned down for medical reasons. All persons being inducted have to take and pass a physical. Trump did not pass so he was rejected. Rainbow Richie knows this and knows he voted for a felony draft dodger with Slick willie. But he’s a rainbow warrior so what should we expect.

@Richard Wheeler: Dodging Donny–first claimed his # was too high in 68—no numbers until 69–he lied about that.
Actually the “star athlete” got a 1y deferment for medical in 68–later in 72 changed to 4f—bone spur though The Donald can’t remember which foot or on which golf course the “injury” occurred.
His denigration of Mac and our Viet Nam POW’S is the main reason myself and many other vets will not vote for him..

@Mully:But people do buy them, and have for years, and will continue to do so.

And without government regulations on companies, they too would be utilizing forced child labor and anything else they could get away with.

So this free market/everything will be just find if we get rid of government thinking is grossly flawed. It seems that today’s anti-establishment folks have made this into a binary thing and can’t distinguish a middle ground.

@Richard Wheeler:

His denigration of Mac and our Viet Nam POW’S is the main reason myself and many other vets will not vote for him.

Rainbow Richie and the lying liberals. He won’t participate in your rainbow parades, so you don’t like him. Your excuse is phony. You had no problem voting for a felony draft dodger when Slick was the candidate. Trump had a legitimate medical classification (at least until someone proves different) he sure didn’t flee to Russia to dodge arrest for draft dodging, as your favorite ex pres did. He didn’t denigrate McCain, McCain has freely admitting collaborating with his captors, that is nothing to be ashamed of. He didn’t have any military info to share of value, why not say what he had to to prevent being tortured?
I don’t see the necessity to lie about your reasons.

@Redteam:

Trump could not serve because he was turned down for medical reasons. All persons being inducted have to take and pass a physical

And you can prove that how? Have you seen Trumps military file? Hell, man, he won’t even release his tax returns.

Don’t we have a right to see Trump’s medical exemption when you think you have a right to see Cruz’s birth records with the U.S. embassy in Canada?

@retire05: He has released no recent tax returns–he doesn’t remember which bad foot kept him out of service.
The guy’s a phony. Who will vote for him other than angry white men like the one’s posting here at F.A—he’ll need 80% to offset the shellacking he’ll take from women and minorities.

@retire05:

Don’t we have a right to see Trump’s medical exemption when you think you have a right to see Cruz’s birth records

First, when and where did I say I have a right to see Cruz’s birth records. I don’t even have the right to see my own grandfathers birth records. I went to the Vital Stats office in the county where he was born and asked and was told he has to be dead for 100 years before his records can be seen by anyone. So why would I expect to be able to see Cruz’s records and why would I want to see his records. The onus is on him if he wants to prove a point. I couldn’t care less.
Why would you or anyone have a right to see Trumps medical records? Don’t you believe in confidentiality of person’s personal information?

Hell, man, he won’t even release his tax returns.

Would you publish your tax returns? If there is something illegal in his tax returns that he has been convicted of, that should be in the public record of his trial and conviction, otherwise it’s not something that should be released to the public. Obama has never released his tax returns to the public, why should anyone. No politician or public figure would put incriminating evidence in a record they were expecting to become public. Have you seen Cruz’s tax records? What’s his social security number? If you don’t know the answer to that, you’ve not seen his tax records, only censured records, which are totally useless.

@kitt: #21
Kitt, thx, however, just to clarify, my comments are to specific concerns and we all prioritize. Most of us support those who’ll likely affect elements of our society we think critical.

My own feeling is that there are things that will permanently alter a Nation if they are not taken to hand by strong leadership. Europe is falling apart because it caved-in completely to faceless and remote bankers who promised rainfalls of cash. Politicians got paid, sold out their countries and now there is NO turning back the clock.

America is on its way to Europeanism. Do-nothings actually believe guys like Bernie Sanders just as they believed Obama – promise free things and then make it rain free things and you’ll get elected. Big money and special interests control the game.

Most of our politicians are clueless about business. Most are lawyers, or these days, career politicians. The five candidates still running are all flawed. Initially I liked Carson’s common sense, and Santorum, and Walker, but the wheels came off their wagons, and there’s also much I liked about Paul other than his strong isolationist stance.

Initially I really liked Cruz, not because he had voted to fast track TPP, but because he had slapped Boehner and the Rep leaders in the mouth for falling in step with Obama. I think this was originally Cruz’s nomination to lose.

IMHO, Cruz screwed up and lost traction when he constantly and droningly kept attacking Trump, instead of staying ‘on message’ – his inner lawyer defaulted to what he knew – attack the competition. But you only do that if you don’t have a case.

In this race, he had a really good case to make, but he couldn’t make the big points clear, and Trump beat him to it. In effect, Cruz let Trump get to him and it got so bad that eventually every utterance he made was about Trump.

I also think that most voters don’t like being ‘preached’ to, even if that’s what most pols do, you can’t ‘sound’ like you’re preaching to the electorate. Cruz couldn’t stop sounding like a preacher. Trump ‘dialogues’ with his audience and is able to resonate with it, telling stories and goofy jokes, plus an occasional head shaker. Trump’s actually a better politician on that front than Cruz has demonstrated the ability to pull off.

Trump has momentum that appears to be heading him for the nomination, and his biggest asset, IMHO, is that no one owns him – including all the clowns who run the big banks and guys like Zuckerberg who want to destroy the country by having zero borders and move a great deal of control over trade to off-shore entities. What he does with that asset, is yet to be.

Other things, such as understanding the need for un-burdening business from the insane taxes and over-regulation, and what it takes to build anything, or pushing back on senior bankers, those will be helpful, if acted on, but there are no guarantees from anyone.

I was very surprised to see Ted Cruz concede tonight.
I thought he would fight it out at the convention if he even thought he had a chance to force a 2nd ballot.

@Ajay42302:
You again miss the point. There must be some rules to play by but that’s not where we are. We have politicians who can be bought and thereby try to pick winners and losers. Obama is great at picking losers using our money. The list of failed “green” energy companies is a long one. This was a no lose proposition for his party. They use our money to prop up companies destined to fail and part of that money gets returned right back to Democrat coffers for election campaign use. If he and his friends are so sold on green energy they should put up their own money, leave me choose what to do with mine. Also business’s either move out of the country or close when we make it too hard or too expensive to do business here, we also see higher prices due to the added cost of the extra burden.
Here is a very simple video that just scratches the surface of this issue.

Here is a bit more in greater detail. https://nrf.com/sites/default/files/Overregulation_Burdening-Americas-Small-Retailers_NRF-report-May-2016.pdf

Two final points. Obama has lousy GDP numbers. Turns out his shovel ready meant, bury us in debt, not jobs and growth.
What US government rule or regulation do you want that will close all the worlds sweatshops?

@Mully: great links Mully. Shows that the politicians in Washington do not care that people are facing these situations.
And you’re right, as I’ve said to John numerous times. Things such as solar power and windmills are only projects approved for the government to give money to crooks and scam artists, with much of it being kicked back to the pols. These are the people that ‘We the People’ got damn tired of and voted for Trump to wake them up. I don’t really expect much to change, at best the most we can expect is to slow the downhill steam roller slightly.