Senator Ted Cruz Talks Tax Bill, Los Angeles Protests
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It's great to be joined again by the Republican Senator from Texas, Ted Cruz, who chairs the Commerce Committee. Senator, welcome back. It's good to see you. A busy day when it comes to the reconciliation process as we track the parliamentarian in your chamber, a rules committee in the House. I'm just wondering broadly, what's the first thing you take out of this bill? Is it the new cap on salt or are you more focused on enhancing what is in the bill, like making business tax cuts permanent?

Well, listen, I think the House did a good job starting this process. We're going to get this bill accomplished. We're going to get it passed because it's the main vehicle to deliver on the promises we made to the American people in November. And so it's the main vehicle to deliver the funding to secure the border. It's the main vehicle to rebuild our military. It's the main vehicle to extend the 2017 tax cuts and make them bigger and bolder. And that's critical for economic growth and jobs.

The process of the back and forth is ongoing. And so in the Senate right now, each committee is releasing its language. And the Senate is going to take some different approaches than the House did. And ultimately, there will be a conference and the two will come together. And I think through that process, the bill will get better.

Well, and certainly the Commerce Committee has made some changes to the House legislation, including in the bill you released last week, a tweak to the moratorium on state AI laws, tying it to the federal broadband expansion program. Mr. Chairman, are you confident that can get through the Senate? Frankly, has the parliamentarian suggested to you that that will pass muster when it comes to the bird rule?

Well, we have yet to argue this before the parliamentarian. I anticipate that we will do so this week, either this week or next week. And it certainly will be challenged. That provision will be challenged in front of the parliamentarian. I don't know how she'll rule. Listen, I think it is...

very sound policy. If you look at just a few weeks ago, I chaired a hearing on AI and I think AI is transformational technology that is going to have a massive impact on productivity and jobs across the country. And I think it is critical that America win the race to AI, that we not lose to China. And

The hearing I chaired, we had witnesses from across the industry testifying. Everyone agreed there is a real danger of state legislation, and in particular, states like California adopting a heavy-handed nanny state approach, much like the European Union, which would cripple America's leadership in AI. And so I think it is sound policy. Whether it gets enacted on reconciliation or not is a question that's still being argued.

You've got the FAA, of course, in your purview, Senator, and it's an agency that we've all as Americans talked about a lot recently. This is something that touches all of our viewers and listeners. You've got a little over $12 billion here for enhancements and improvements. Is that enough money to replace the nation's air traffic control system?

Well, $12.5 billion is a major investment in modernizing air traffic control. There's no doubt we need to do so. It's something I've been fighting for for over a decade in the Senate, that if you look right now at our air traffic control system, it's outdated equipment. They use radars from the 1950s. They use little slips of paper and computers that have floppy disks. My guess is a lot of your viewers don't even remember what floppy disks were.

And yet that's what we rely on to keep our flying public safe. That's unacceptable. We need to embrace modern technology and GPS. There are enormous upsides. And so $12.5 billion is a major investment. I also think we need reforms to improve the system. That's something that's going to be a real priority for the Commerce Committee.

I'm saving my floppies in case they become collector's items someday, Senator. I wonder if you still feel like Starlink is part of this solution, and if you've had a chance to talk with Elon Musk about it since his apparent breakup with the president.

Oh, look, I think Starlink is amazing technology. And my view is that technology decisions throughout the government ought to be based on the merits. You look at, for example, the BEAD program, which Congress authorized $42 billion to provide connections to high-quality broadband. And the entire Biden administration, they didn't connect even a single home in America. It was an absolute disaster.

boondoggle and failure. The President, President Trump's administration is rightly focused on using that money to actually have connectivity. One of the reasons the Biden administration didn't connect anyone is they decided they hated Elon Musk and hated Starlink and so we're not going to consider that as an option. And the reality when you're talking about broadband is the right technology depends upon the right location. So in a dense, urban environment,

Fiber makes a lot of sense. If you're out in the mountains or the middle of the wilderness with very sparse population, satellite or less expensive infrastructure solutions make a lot more sense. And so I think the government ought to make those decisions based on the technology that best meets the need.

Mr. Chairman, I'd like to ask you about words we heard from another Senate chairman, Lindsey Graham, of the Budget Committee, who suggested in an interview today that this package may end up needing to be broken up in different parts after all, which, of course, was the original plan of the majority leader, John Thune. Is it acceptable to you? Do you think it would be acceptable for the president to not get his entire legislative agenda done in one single beautiful bill?

Listen, I think we're going to get it done. And early on, I advocated for doing it in two bills. I would have been certainly supportive of that. But we're going to get this bill accomplished. And the reason is, I think the stakes of failure are too high. If Congress does not act,

By December 31st, there's an automatic $4 trillion tax increase. That will hurt every working family in America. That will hurt every small business in America. And that's an outcome that the Democrats are quite happy with, but there's not a single Republican in the House or Senate

who wants that to happen. So is it going to be complicated? Yes. Are there a million trade-offs? Yes. But we're going to get it done. And, you know, look, I'll reflect back to 2017, the last big tax cut we passed under President Trump. I spent hundreds of hours in 2017 negotiating provisions in that bill. And if you look at how that bill came to pass, the House passed a good bill.

It went to the Senate. The Senate made it substantially better. And then we went to conference committee and it got better as well. My hope is the same thing happens this time. I'd like to see the Senate be bigger and bolder. I'd like to see us have more fiscal responsibility and cut unnecessary waste and fraud and abuse. And so that's certainly what I'm urging my colleagues in the Senate to do.

Well, and you'd like to see Trump's savings accounts for newborns become a reality. That, of course, was your brainchild, Senator. The law stipulates the baby must be a United States citizen at birth. And I wonder what assumptions you are making about the status of birthright citizenship here.

Well, look, this particular provision doesn't resolve that. It just relies on U.S. law. And so right now, U.S. law confers citizenship on birth. I think birthright citizenship is a policy that doesn't make sense because it encourages illegal immigration. So I've long advocated for changing that policy. But this bill is an economic bill, so it's not purporting to resolve immigration questions. What this bill is doing, and I'm proud to have introduced it and to be fighting for it, it's in the bill. It's going to be enacted.

This will create an investment account for every child in America. And newborn children, newborn children born this year would receive $1,000 to seed that account. And then each year, parents and family and employers would be able to contribute $1,000

up to $5,000 a year in a tax-advantaged account, that money would grow and it would be invested in the stock market, in the S&P 500. And if you assume, let's assume a little girl, little boy born this year has the $1,000 and then has $5,000 invested each year. If you assume historic rates of growth of the S&P 500, that little baby, by the time he or she turns 18, would

would have $170,000 in their account. If they kept on investing $5,000 a year, by the time they turned 35, they would have $700,000 in that account. And that's for every child in America. That is a really powerful way to enable every child to have the benefits of compound growth.

Senator, I want to go to L.A. with you for a moment here because I know you're very sensitive to constitutional law and I'm sure you have very strong feelings about some of the things that we've seen on the streets of America's second largest city over the past four days. We received a statement from the chief of police yesterday.

LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell responding to the possible deployment of Marines, which now, of course, has happened. We've got 700 deployed from Camp Pendleton. He starts by writing, the LAPD has not received any formal notification the Marines will be arriving. However, their arrival of federal military forces in Los Angeles, absent clear coordination, presents a significant logistical and operational challenge for those of us charged with safeguarding this city. Is what the president is doing right now.

fair to the police in Los Angeles? Well, listen, what is not fair to the police in Los Angeles is the actions of Karen Bass, the Democrat mayor, and the actions of Gavin Newsom, the Democrat governor. What we're seeing in L.A. is horrific. We're seeing violent riots that are breaking out and spilling on day after day after day. We're seeing police cars firebombed. We're seeing

protesters protesting against the enforcement of federal immigration law. And I got to say, it is a bizarre image to see protesters who say, do not enforce immigration law. We want to be here illegally to see them waving Mexican flags for the proposition. Don't you dare back, dare send us back to the country whose flag we're waving. That makes no sense. And police have a say in whether troops are deployed, though.

Well, look, the problem we've seen in places like L.A. is the cops and I think I support law enforcement and the police, but unfortunately today's Democrats do not. When they are given a choice between siding with illegal immigrants or Venezuelan gang members or violent criminals or siding with the police, today's Democrats do what Gavin Newsom does.

which is he's suing the Trump administration saying, do not enforce law and order, do not protect our citizens. I got to say that's backwards. I think we ought to be keeping our city safe. And that should be regardless of the circumstances. We should we should be against violence. But should we be against states rights? Senator, is that not something you stand for? Does this not risk setting a dangerous precedent of the federal government coming in and overtaking the will of an individual state? Yeah.

You know what, there's a long tradition when you have local politicians who are lawless, who are defying federal law, the federal government has the authority and has an obligation to enforce federal law. Look, you saw when you had southern Democrat governors in the civil rights movement resist integrating schools, saying we are not going to allow African American children in our schools, you saw President Dwight D. Eisenhower send in the National Guard and say you are going to follow federal law and you don't have the right

to defy federal law. Well, the new -- the new massive resistance Democrats are now fighting against federal immigration law. And the federal -- federal government has a responsibility to keep the American people safe. And I got to say, we're seeing a replay of what happened during the Black Lives Matter and Antifa riots, where Democrat politicians

prevented the police from protecting their citizens and allowed people to be murdered, allowed stores to be looted, allowed police to be assaulted. And so I'm glad President Trump is stepping forward saying we're going to keep you safe from violence on the streets. Well, when we consider what he's keeping Americans safe from, Senator, there's a difference between resistance and insurrection. And the president today did not rule out invoking the Insurrection Act, should he?

Well, look, that'll be a question that will depend on the circumstances, but I

But I got to tell you, the problem is made worse when you have Democrat mayors and governors that refuse to enforce the law. And that's what we're seeing in California. If you break the law, if you commit acts of violence, you should be arrested. And these are lawless protests in support of further lawlessness. Why are they mad? They're mad because President Trump is deporting illegal immigrants. They're mad because he's deporting Venezuelan gang members and murderers and child rapists.

And I don't get the Democrats' calculus when they look at that and say, you know what America needs? We need more MS-13 members. We need more human traffickers and criminals. I think the vast majority of Americans don't agree with that.

All right, Senator, we appreciate your time. Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, of course, the chair of the Senate Commerce Committee here with us on Bloomberg TV and radio. How can you grow your business from idea to industry leader? Bring your vision to life with smart business buying tools and technology from Amazon Business. From fast, free shipping to in-depth buying insights and automated purchase approvals, they deliver everything you need to achieve your goals.

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