Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, formally announced his presidential candidacy Monday, giving a laundry list of conservative positions on everything from gay marriage to abolition of the Internal Revenue Service. Although Cruz may have hit all the popular talking points of the campaign trail, President Ted Cruz would need to be ready to answer detailed questions about the consequences of his policies. Here are a few examples:
Tax Simplicity
In his announcement, Cruz said, “Instead of a tax code that crushes innovation, that imposes burdens on families struggling to make ends met, imagine a simple flat tax that lets every American fill out his or her taxes on a postcard.”
Question for Cruz: Are you prepared to eliminate popular tax credits in exchange for a simpler tax code?
Simplifying the tax code is a popular talking point, but when actually applied it means taking away popular tax credits and deductions, such as the charitable deduction, the mortgage interest deduction, and the child tax credit. According to the Treasury Department, $1.1 trillion in tax breaks are claimed by individuals, $212 billion of which is a tax break for employer-provided health insurance. Cruz might want to cut tax rates by an equal amount to create revenue-neutral reform, but the change wouldn’t affect everyone equally if the tax code suddenly stopped conferring special favor upon certain popular activities.
A dramatic simplification of the tax code might very well be worth it, but President Ted Cruz would have to admit it would require eliminating popular tax breaks, and make the case to taxpayers that the trade-offs are worth it.
Education
“Instead of a federal government that seeks to dictate school curriculum through Common Core, imagine repealing every word of Common Core. Imagine embracing school choice as the civil rights issue of the next generation that every single child, regardless of race, regardless of ethnicity, regardless of wealth or ZIP Code, every child in America has the right to a quality education. And that’s true from all of the above, whether it is public schools, or charter schools, or private schools, or Christian schools, or parochial schools, or home schools, every child.”
Question: How big should the federal role in education be? Should the federal government require all states to repeal Common Core standards? Should the federal government run its own school choice programs?
There’s an important difference between making it easier for states to repeal Common Core and mandating that every state do so. Regardless of Common Core’s merits, a federal mandate for repeal of Common Core would go against the federalism conservatives crave in education policy. Some states might want to keep Common Core.
The same goes for school choice. School choice is traditionally a state and local issue. President Ted Cruz can support school choice, but a federally-run school choice program would be a different story. In the past, Cruz has said “The first agency I would eliminate would be the U.S. Department of Education.” In theory, the federal government could pay for school choice programs run by state and local governments, but this would still be federal involvement in education that some conservatives argue is unconstitutional.
Obamacare
“Five years ago today, the president signed Obamacare into law. … Instead of the joblessness, instead of the millions forced into part-time work, instead of the millions who’ve lost their health insurance, lost their doctors, have faced skyrocketing health insurance premiums, imagine in 2017 a new president signing legislation repealing every word of Obamacare. Imagine healthcare reform that keeps government out of the way between you and your doctor and that makes health insurance personal and portable and affordable.”
Question: But how do you unwind Obamacare without destabilizing the health insurance market?
When Obamacare’s provisions finally took effect, the health insurance industry was in disarray. Disaffection with the law stemmed not just from rising premiums, but also with cancelled plans and coverage changes in those that remained. President Obama had famously told Americans, “if you like your healthcare plan, you can keep it,” which turned out to be false. Would President Ted Cruz be able to transform the health insurance industry, make the same claim, and keep it?
Furthermore, would President Ted Cruz’s healthcare reform insure more people than Obamacare does? Would he repeal the Medicaid expansion, taking millions off the program at once? Obamacare turned the healthcare debate into a numbers game, with liberals touting how many more Americans now have health coverage.
These questions don’t apply only to Cruz. Any other candidate who uses the same talking points needs to have answers ready to the same questions. If elected, any candidate’s talking points of today could be policy tomorrow. That’s why it’s so important to ask these tough questions about simple talking points.
