Sen. Cruz Addresses San Antonio Chamber of Commerce

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January 30, 2018

Discusses legislative victories and priorities for Texans in 2018 at 40th annual 'SA to DC' fly-in

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) today addressed the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce at their 40th annual 'SA to DC' fly-in. There, he discussed the four major victories of 2017, from passing historic tax cuts, and repealing Obamacare's individual mandate, to reducing the burden of federal regulations, and confirming strong, constitutionalist judges to the federal bench. He also shared his priorities for 2018 moving forward.

Watch Sen. Cruz's full remarks at: https://www.youtube.com/watch'v=rMuy-Xw3Pec&feature=youtu.be.

"There were four major priorities for 2017: tax reform, regulatory reform, Obamacare repeal, and appointing strong, constitutionalist judges to the federal bench," Sen. Cruz said. "Looking back at 2017, we saw a remarkable record of accomplishment on those four priorities. As everyone knows, we passed a historic tax reform bill in December. A big tax cut across the board, targeted to everyone in this room. Targeted at job creators. The number one focus on this was creating more jobs, raising wages, and expanding economic growth and opportunity. We took the corporate tax rate - had been 35 percent, the highest in the developed world, higher than virtually all of Europe. We cut it to 21 percent to directly incentivize keeping jobs here, and bringing jobs back to America. We've put American companies on a far better footing to compete on the global stage."

Sen. Cruz continued, "On the individual side, we cut every individual tax rate across the board, so that working families across this country will see significant additional money in their paychecks. We doubled the standard deduction for a married couple from $12,000 up to $24,000. That means for 90 percent of taxpayers now, they'll be able to fill out their taxes on a postcard. Personally, I wish it was 100 percent of taxpayers. I'd like to see us go back and keep working to do that. But moving to 90 percent being able to take the standard deduction and use a postcard, is a significant step in simplification."

Addressing priorities for 2018, Sen. Cruz said, "In 2018, we need to continue delivering on our promises to the American people. We need to keep focusing on regulatory reform, on reducing the burdens on job creators. We need to finish the job on Obamacare, which is a massive drain on the economy. And we need to lower health insurance premiums, so that health insurance is more affordable. We need to keep working on jobs and economic growth. My number one, overarching priority is jobs and economic growth. And the reason is simple. It's what I hear from each of you. It's what I hear across Texas. The top priory of Texans is jobs and economic growth."