2017-02-07

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FORT WORTH (CBS11) -Texas Senator Ted Cruz compared Super Bowl LI with November’s Presidential election.

He did so Monday morning while addressing the Southwest Ag Issues Summit in Fort Worth.

Senator Cruz joked that at halftime, reporters wrote off the New England Patriots and its chances to come back and defeat the Atlanta Falcons, just as reporters wrote off Donald Trump in favor of Hillary Clinton on election night.

Cruz said, “Then some Patriots changed that.”

He said he wanted to help President Trump accomplish his goals.

Since he first ran for Senate, Cruz often railed against President Barack Obama.

Now, Cruz says he’s glad that Congress is poised to repeal and replace Obamacare, pass tax reform and eliminate many Obama-era regulations.

On Tuesday night, Senator Cruz is set to debate Democratic-Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont on CNN over the future of the Affordable Care Act.

Sanders, like Cruz, ran for president last year.

During his speech in Fort Worth, Cruz said the EPA under President Obama, was “manned by zealots” who drove up costs for farmers and ranchers.

He told them he advocated for tax reform calling it a “big, big deal.”

During a visit with reporters afterwards, Senator Cruz said President Donald Trump and Republicans were discussing different tax plans.

Cruz says under his proposals, businesses would pay a flat 16 percent tax. “It gets rid of the corporate income tax, gets rid of the payroll tax, gets rid of the death tax, you just have a simple farm business 16 percent flat tax.”

When asked specifically about a “border tax” now being considered by the Trump Administration on goods imported from Mexico, Cruz said his plan is also border adjustable.

“On imports coming in, it imposes the identical 16 percent business flat tax that every other American company is paying,” said Cruz.

The Senator said most of the developed countries do this already. “When we export to Europe, the countries in Europe impose a business flat tax on our exports. When we export to Asia, many of the countries impose their taxes on our exports. So this puts everyone on a level playing field.”

In addition, Cruz says his plan would help Texans who export goods and services. “All of those exports are tax free. That’s an enormous benefit. That will impact Texas jobs and drive up Texas wages.”

During his talk with reporters, Senator Cruz praised President Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court, Neil Gorsuch.

He also says he supports the President’s Executive Order that seeks to temporarily ban those from seven terror-prone, majority Muslim countries from entering the U.S.

“American immigration laws explicitly give the President authority to halt a class of refugees to this country, if it’s in the national interest. That’s already within the statutes passed by Congress,” said Cruz.

The Trump Administration is appealing the temporary stay imposed by a federal judge in Seattle, blocking the President’s Executive Order.

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