Verdict with Ted Cruz - A Historic Year of Victories

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.660 Guaranteed human.

00:00:05.460 Welcome, it is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.

00:00:09.180 And Senator, this is one of those fun shows we get to do towards the end of the year.

00:00:12.980 And that's talking about the GOP opening up a can of whoopee on the Democrats,

00:00:17.560 especially in the Senate.

00:00:18.560 We had big wins for the American people that are going to have a real impact,

00:00:24.240 especially on a lot of Americans, millions in 2026,

00:00:28.680 when many of the laws that were passed are actually enacted.

00:00:32.200 On a scale of 1 to 10, how excited are you about the results from this year?

00:00:36.880 37.

00:00:38.040 37.

00:00:38.960 Okay, I like that.

00:00:40.020 Look, this year, it is not an exaggeration to say we had historic victories in the Senate.

00:00:48.440 We had victories at a order of magnitude we've never seen.

00:00:53.240 And so this show, we're just going to walk through all of the victories we've won in the Senate.

00:00:56.840 I'll tell you, in my 13 years in the Senate, I have never had a year like this with so many major victories,

00:01:04.200 with so many accomplishments that are lasting and transformational.

00:01:09.140 And look, we came in and started the year with President Trump being sworn in,

00:01:14.980 and the Trump administration hit the ground running with a head of steam.

00:01:19.880 But the Senate, and the Senate is now, Congress is out now for Christmas.

00:01:25.440 We'll come back after New Year's.

00:01:28.160 What we accomplished this year is transformational.

00:01:33.240 All right, let's start with the border.

00:01:35.440 We came in, the border was wide open, the worst illegal immigration in history.

00:01:39.960 We now have a president and an administration that will follow the law.

00:01:44.040 Illegal border crossings dropped more than 99%.

00:01:48.020 That is staggering.

00:01:49.960 It's incredible.

00:01:50.140 Tom Holman at the White House this week was talking about, he's worked under, I think it's five, six presidents.

00:01:54.300 It's crazy.

00:01:55.020 And he's like, I've never seen something like this, where we have like zero illegal immigration,

00:01:59.640 because we secured it and we said, you're not going to get away with it.

00:02:03.400 And if you look legislatively, by far, legislatively, the biggest accomplishment was the reconciliation bill

00:02:10.940 that President Trump signed on July 4th.

00:02:14.060 It's interesting.

00:02:15.320 That used to be called the one big beautiful bill.

00:02:18.600 You will now see just about every senator referring to it as the working families tax cut.

00:02:25.220 Same bill.

00:02:26.700 And there's a reason, which is they did a bunch of polling,

00:02:28.860 and the working families tax cut polls about 40 points better than the one big beautiful bill.

00:02:34.520 And so it happens to be a major tax cut for working families.

00:02:38.700 So the working families tax cut is an accurate name, 0.99

00:02:42.500 but you're going to notice everyone calling it the working families tax cut now.

00:02:47.820 That legislation, and this, no hyperbole has more conservative victories in it

00:02:54.000 than any bill that's ever passed into law.

00:02:55.920 I believe in the history of the republic.

00:02:58.860 Let's break it down.

00:03:00.400 I would say, what are the big ones for people?

00:03:01.980 Because there's some in there that there's been this, quote, frustration.

00:03:05.820 I think a lot of this is the left and the media trying to drum up

00:03:08.720 that Donald Trump's not getting it done for you.

00:03:10.500 He forgot about you.

00:03:11.820 So much of what people need to understand is the passing of this bill

00:03:16.620 means the enacting of the bill in 2026.

00:03:20.940 Yeah, many of the provisions go into effect in 2026.

00:03:24.540 You're going to start seeing the real benefits in the economy kicking in in force in 2026.

00:03:30.800 All right.

00:03:31.200 Look, the working families tax cut, the biggest element of it was extending and making permanent 0.51

00:03:36.000 the Trump tax cuts.

00:03:37.260 If we had not done that in two weeks on January 1st, there would have been a $4 trillion tax increase.

00:03:45.560 That would have been crippling to the economy. 0.99

00:03:48.600 So making those tax cuts permanent is enormously important.

00:03:52.280 We also made them bigger.

00:03:53.260 So we passed no taxes on tips.

00:03:55.620 That was my legislation.

00:03:57.080 By the way, people will start seeing the benefits of that next year.

00:04:00.260 So if you're a waiter, if you're a waitress, if you're a bartender,

00:04:03.640 if you work in a nail salon, if you're a taxi cab driver,

00:04:07.660 the millions of Americans who rely on tips are going to see real meaningful tax relief.

00:04:13.840 We've also got no tax on overtime.

00:04:16.140 Millions of Americans who earn a significant portion of their income on overtime,

00:04:21.540 that's now tax-free.

00:04:22.960 No tax on Social Security for the millions of seniors at home relying on Social Security.

00:04:28.400 All three of those are going to effect in 2026.

00:04:31.420 All three of those are going to provide really meaningful relief.

00:04:35.900 What else do we have?

00:04:36.980 You look at the investments that we have, over $100 billion in securing the border.

00:04:45.620 So Trump is enforcing the law.

00:04:48.020 That was critical.

00:04:49.000 That produced the immediate drop.

00:04:50.720 And now we provided the funding to build the wall, to put in technology,

00:04:55.020 to hire Border Patrol, to hire ICE, to invest in law enforcement.

00:04:59.180 All of that is designed to make these massive improvements stick.

00:05:03.980 That is, as a conservative, there's never been a $100 billion investment in securing the border.

00:05:11.380 You know, it's interesting.

00:05:12.340 I was speaking yesterday to a realtor group.

00:05:16.580 They asked me to come and speak.

00:05:17.620 And they said to me they never could have imagined that securing the border

00:05:21.980 would have such a positive impact, as they've described it, for American families.

00:05:27.700 They said they were witnessing over the last, basically, four and a half years,

00:05:31.080 the age of first-time homebuyers had skyrocketed,

00:05:37.480 where homeownership was unattainable for families, young families in their 30s.

00:05:41.960 It was now getting to be 40 before people were getting their first-time homebuyer.

00:05:45.680 Rents had gotten out of control.

00:05:47.800 And they said they can't wait for 2026, because they are seeing now,

00:05:53.320 with 2 million-plus deportations, people have stopped coming across the border illegally.

00:05:58.120 They believe it's going to be a great year for American families and first-time homebuyers,

00:06:02.660 because now you're not having to compete with so many illegal immigrants.

00:06:06.300 Well, and we covered that on Wednesday's pod,

00:06:08.920 that the new data came out that showed rents dropped significantly.

00:06:13.120 And they dropped significantly because the president has deported 2 million people who are here illegally.

00:06:18.640 Those people are now not buying homes.

00:06:20.500 They're not renting apartments.

00:06:21.840 And supply and demand, that means that it drives down the cost of a home.

00:06:27.000 It drives down the cost of rent for Americans. 0.89

00:06:30.620 Yeah, it really does.

00:06:31.860 It's incredible.

00:06:32.540 And that's just one of those massive victories.

00:06:34.640 And it's not just that.

00:06:35.820 It's also the national security part of this.

00:06:38.040 I mean, rarely do you hear home prices and national security related to one simple issue.

00:06:43.080 That's something that you had been fighting so hard on.

00:06:45.280 It's another victory.

00:06:46.120 Well, and in the working families tax cut, we invested $150 billion in rebuilding the military

00:06:52.920 so we can stand up to our adversaries, so we can stand up to China and the other enemies we have across the globe.

00:06:58.480 And the way it works in the Senate is when you're drafting that bill,

00:07:03.480 each committee chairman drafts whatever is in their jurisdiction.

00:07:07.580 So I am the chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

00:07:12.440 That committee covers about 40 percent of the U.S. economy.

00:07:15.460 What that means is that everything within that jurisdiction, I wrote.

00:07:20.300 I had the lead pen and wrote.

00:07:23.240 So, for example, one thing that is in the Commerce jurisdiction is the Coast Guard.

00:07:28.240 So we invested $24.5 billion in the Coast Guard.

00:07:34.380 Now, to give you a sense of how important that is, how significant that is,

00:07:38.860 what do you think the annual budget of the Coast Guard is?

00:07:41.500 I honestly have no clue.

00:07:43.660 It's between $11 and $12 billion.

00:07:46.040 Okay.

00:07:46.260 So we invested more than 200 percent the annual budget of the Coast Guard into the Coast Guard.

00:07:53.260 I mean, it is historic.

00:07:54.140 Is that because they were purposely and deliberately underfunded by the left and the Biden administration

00:07:58.100 because they didn't want them to be able to do this job?

00:08:00.400 Well, look, it was what we were investing in.

00:08:03.100 Let me tell you what we invested in.

00:08:04.180 It was specifically in capital.

00:08:05.460 So rebuilding infrastructure, building new ships, building new helicopters.

00:08:10.840 And a massive portion of it is polar ice cutters. 0.96

00:08:14.060 So polar ice cutters in the Arctic, we're getting our asses kicked by China and by Russia.

00:08:21.500 And we don't have the capability right now to build Arctic ice cutters.

00:08:26.020 Well, we've invested billions in building new ice cutters.

00:08:28.960 And the beauty of it is that's bringing shipbuilding back to the United States.

00:08:33.040 One company, Davies, announced a billion and a half dollars investment in a shipyard in Galveston, Texas,

00:08:39.260 to build those ships.

00:08:41.580 Let us compete with China, but also bringing manufacturing capacity back to the United States. 0.55

00:08:46.720 Operation Overlord, the D-Day beaches.

00:08:50.260 You and I share a passion for history.

00:08:52.440 So I hope you'll join me next spring on the D-Day beaches in Normandy.

00:08:57.120 That's right.

00:08:57.780 The invasion that sealed Hitler's doom, Omaha and Utah. 0.85

00:09:01.720 You're going to discover the sacred patch of sand with me.

00:09:04.620 Ten days in Europe, luxury hotels and fully escorted by America's leading expert on France

00:09:11.140 and the D-Day invasion, Ken Chase.

00:09:13.320 Fifty-seven, fifty-seven, and that includes your airfare.

00:09:17.380 You're going to stand at General Patton's grave site, Bastogne, Pointe du Hark, and Mulberry Harbor.

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00:09:37.920 Dial pound 250, say the keyword Conservative Tours.

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00:09:47.460 Senator, there was so much focus on the economy in this last year and the wins,

00:09:53.440 but there were some really big wins within that.

00:09:56.920 One of them deals with the airwaves, and it deals with national security.

00:10:00.800 It deals with people and what you can have access to.

00:10:03.540 Explain this big win, because it didn't get as much media attention as it probably should have.

00:10:07.440 Yeah, look, as you know, my number one priority is jobs.

00:10:10.980 Jobs, jobs, jobs.

00:10:13.220 There are lots of major wins this year that we passed into law that are impacting job creation,

00:10:19.880 that are creating more high-paying jobs in Texas and all across the country.

00:10:23.900 One of the big ones is spectrum.

00:10:25.760 Now, what is spectrum?

00:10:26.680 Electromagnetic spectrum is how everything communicates, how our cell phones work,

00:10:31.420 how Wi-Fi works, how TV and broadcasts, and everything goes out over spectrum.

00:10:37.900 The largest holder of spectrum in the United States is the United States government.

00:10:43.100 The United States government has massive quantities of spectrum that it owns

00:10:46.900 that are not available to the private sector.

00:10:49.800 I wrote into the Working Families Tax Cut a mandate that the federal government

00:10:54.120 auction off 800 megahertz of spectrum to the private sector.

00:10:58.720 Now, what does that mean?

00:10:59.700 That means that in the coming years, that is going to generate over $100 billion for the U.S. government.

00:11:09.160 I mean, the spectrum is incredibly valuable.

00:11:11.420 That's real money that goes directly to the U.S. Treasury.

00:11:15.740 Now, why will it generate over $100 billion?

00:11:18.800 Because that spectrum is incredibly valuable.

00:11:21.160 Number one, it's valuable for our phones.

00:11:23.860 It's valuable to beat China in the race for 5G and then beat China in the race for 6G. 0.71

00:11:31.860 And you've got to have the spectrum to invest in that.

00:11:34.960 What that means is you're going to see the big phone companies.

00:11:37.760 You're going to see AT&T and Verizon and Sprint investing tens of billions of dollars

00:11:43.140 into new capacity to use that spectrum.

00:11:46.800 All of that means more jobs.

00:11:48.640 That means more people setting up towers, more people building.

00:11:52.060 That innovation, it also, it supercharges the tech world, much of the AI world, winning the race for AI.

00:12:00.840 Having that spectrum available means the private sector, they can compete for all sorts of different uses for using that spectrum.

00:12:09.040 And I'll tell you, that was not an easy battle because most of that spectrum that the government holds is either the Department of War

00:12:16.300 or the intelligence agencies have them, and they don't like to give them up.

00:12:20.260 We won that fight.

00:12:21.840 That will generate thousands and thousands of, that will produce thousands and thousands of new jobs.

00:12:28.120 Another big win in the working family tax cut is air traffic control modernization.

00:12:34.980 In that bill, we...

00:12:35.820 Desperately needed, by the way.

00:12:36.660 Like, I don't think people understand how desperately the need was for modernization, what the Trump administration inherited.

00:12:44.600 You and I both remember the very first night a dear friend of ours became the cabinet member in charge of Transportation Secretary.

00:12:52.460 Sean Duffy, the first night, he and his family went into his building where his office was going to be,

00:12:58.260 and we had that horrific crash with a helicopter that came across and hit that plane at Reagan National.

00:13:03.060 Your wife was in the air that night, and it brought up even a bigger issue, like, how does this happen?

00:13:09.840 And we realized there was a massive modernization that was desperately needed for the safety as more and more planes are flying each and every day.

00:13:18.140 You fly every week.

00:13:19.100 I fly almost every week as well.

00:13:21.240 I want to know I'm safe.

00:13:22.680 I want to know when my family's on a plane that they are safe.

00:13:25.200 And this is something that was good for every American that flies.

00:13:28.680 Well, and we had two major victories this year in the Senate on aviation safety.

00:13:35.240 The first was in the working family tax cut.

00:13:38.160 We invested $12.5 billion in terms of modernizing our air traffic control.

00:13:43.120 Air traffic controllers right now in the tower, if you look at the technology they've been using,

00:13:48.200 It is literally 1950s and 1960s technology.

00:13:52.120 They're using radar.

00:13:53.100 They're using little slips of paper.

00:13:54.740 They're using floppy disks.

00:13:56.300 They have computers with floppy disks.

00:13:57.700 When I talk to anyone under 30, they don't know what a floppy disk is.

00:14:01.200 No, it's insane.

00:14:02.360 That's the technology that they're using.

00:14:04.560 So there's $12.5 million.

00:14:06.560 They've been, the FAA, the Trump administration, has been ripping up copper wiring that was failing and replacing it with fiber.

00:14:13.780 They've been getting new and updated computers, getting new technology, all designed so the air traffic controllers can know where the planes are and can manage the airspace to avoid collisions.

00:14:26.420 You know, you mentioned the horrific accident that happened over D.C. Ronald Reagan Airport at the end of January.

00:14:33.820 That accident, an American Airlines flight was flying from Wichita, Kansas, landing at D.C. Reagan.

00:14:39.920 And, as you know, it hit an Army Blackhawk helicopter.

00:14:46.140 67 lives perished that instant.

00:14:50.340 As you noted, Heidi was literally in the air, scheduled to land at Reagan about an hour after that.

00:14:56.260 I was sitting at dinner.

00:14:57.860 I was having dinner with Mike Waltz, who was, at the time, President Trump's national security advisor.

00:15:02.720 Now he's the ambassador to the U.N.

00:15:04.200 And Mike's a good friend of mine.

00:15:05.200 And we were at dinner when we both got notified.

00:15:08.560 In fact, my body man, who you know, he came up and thankfully he did this right.

00:15:13.380 He started with Heidi's OK, but I need to tell you what just happened.

00:15:17.360 And that was a good way to start.

00:15:18.920 I'm glad the Heidi's OK started. 0.83

00:15:20.420 But if you look at aviation safety, a second big victory that we just had on aviation safety happened this week, which is in response to what happened there, I began drafting legislation that's called the Rotaract.

00:15:34.520 Yeah.

00:15:34.680 And the Rotaract is designed to mandate that all aircraft in the sky use what's called ADS-B technology, ADS-B out and ADS-B in.

00:15:46.420 And that is advanced technology to help the other planes in the sky and the other aircraft see each other and to help the air traffic controllers have the information on the precise location in real time.

00:15:59.520 With radar, there's a delay, whereas ADS-B gives it to you in real time.

00:16:04.140 Now, why is that directly relevant to the crash?

00:16:06.900 Well, the Army Blackhawk helicopter had ADS-B technology installed.

00:16:12.740 They had it turned off.

00:16:14.280 Yeah.

00:16:14.860 And so the American Airlines pilot couldn't see the Blackhawk helicopter and didn't know it was there until the two collided.

00:16:24.520 And unfortunately, we discovered the Army had a policy of leaving ADS-B turned off just as a routine matter.

00:16:32.000 It was indefensible.

00:16:33.180 And so the Rotaract mandates, number one, that the military follow the same rules as everybody else.

00:16:39.380 If you're going to be flying, particularly through crowded airspace at an airport, use the technology so the other aircraft can see where you are and so you don't have a collision.

00:16:48.080 And it mandates that everyone use ADS-B technology in and out in the planes.

00:16:53.820 That legislation, you know, it's interesting.

00:16:58.740 We had the Senate just pass this week the National Defense Authorization Act.

00:17:03.340 We pass that every year.

00:17:04.880 That is the big military authorization that we pass.

00:17:08.140 And someone in the House of Representatives dropped a provision in, in the dark of night, that would have allowed the Army to keep ADS-B turned off.

00:17:17.860 Well, this week, I passed the Rotaract and repealed that provision.

00:17:22.620 And so when the House passes it and the President signs it, which I think will happen in January, everyone will be safer flying.

00:17:27.900 Canadian women are looking for more, more out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them. 0.98

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00:17:59.780 There is one thing that I actually think will end up being your legacy one day.

00:18:04.700 Long, long down the road, when you're long and gone and people say, what did Ted Cruz do?

00:18:10.740 I actually believe this will be brought up for an extremely long amount of time.

00:18:15.280 It is going to be transformative to this country, to the young people in this country, and it deals with education.

00:18:20.400 It is something you've been championing for decades, an idea that you love, and now it became reality.

00:18:27.280 And you had to fight tooth and nail to keep it in the big bill.

00:18:31.320 Talk about this victory and what it means application-wise, especially moving forward.

00:18:38.340 Well, look, I agree with you in terms of the magnitude of this victory.

00:18:41.700 And let me say, when we were in the middle of drafting the working families tax cut, in April of this year, we did a retreat of all the Senate Republicans.

00:18:49.660 And we were talking about all the different elements that we wanted in the bill, and everyone had different priorities.

00:18:53.860 And I stood up kind of midway through, and I said, look, there are a lot of things in this bill that are incredibly important, cutting taxes, investing in securing the border, rebuilding the military.

00:19:02.980 All of that matters a ton.

00:19:05.020 But I said, we ought to think for a minute about legacy, about what will be remembered 10, 20, 30 years from now.

00:19:14.060 What will be remembered when we're dead and buried?

00:19:17.100 And I said, I've got two suggestions, two suggestions that fall into the category.

00:19:21.980 The first was school choice, and the second was what has now become the Trump accounts.

00:19:28.180 Now, both of those suggestions, I wrote the legislation for, and both of them are in the bill.

00:19:35.160 Let's start with school choice.

00:19:36.520 What is in the bill?

00:19:37.420 This will kick in.

00:19:39.420 This will start kicking in in a year.

00:19:41.780 And what it will do is every taxpayer in America can give up to $1,700 to a scholarship-granting organization in the states.

00:19:53.180 If you do so, you will get a dollar-for-dollar tax credit.

00:19:57.340 Now, importantly, this is not a deduction.

00:19:59.580 It's a credit.

00:20:00.420 What does that mean?

00:20:01.400 It means if Ben Ferguson writes a check for $1,700 to an organization that gives scholarships to kids in Texas, you owe $1,700 less to Uncle Sam.

00:20:12.820 You just give less on your taxes.

00:20:14.380 So it's basically free money from your perspective.

00:20:17.340 What that is going to do is it is going to produce tens of billions of dollars of scholarships for kids in K-12 education all across the country.

00:20:30.080 And 10, 20, 30 years from now, literally millions of kids who were stuck in failing schools, many of them African-American kids, Hispanic kids, low-income kids, who are in schools where there's violence, where they're not learning, where they're not able to get the education.

00:20:46.920 They're failing.

00:20:47.280 And we're failing them. 0.93

00:20:49.260 Look, you know, if it's a five-year-old, it's not the five-year-old's fault if the kindergarten is a crappy kindergarten.

00:20:56.880 That's not the kid's fault.

00:20:58.460 That is, at the end of the day, school choice is about, I think it's the civil rights issue of the 21st century.

00:21:05.020 I think every child deserves access to an excellent education, and it shouldn't matter what your race is, what your wealth is, where you live.

00:21:13.940 This provision, 30 years from now, we're going to look back, and literally there are going to be millions of kids who would have been failed by the system,

00:21:22.760 but instead got a scholarship and ended up being able to go to a Catholic school, to a Jewish day school, to a private school,

00:21:31.160 and to be safe, not to be at risk of violence, to learn to read and learn.

00:21:37.020 And if you get education, it opens up every other opportunity for the rest of your life. 0.96

00:21:42.380 And if you don't get an education, you're screwed.

00:21:45.660 And so that is in there. 0.79

00:21:49.840 Look, I've been fighting for school choice for 30 years.

00:21:52.640 The school choice movement is the domestic priority I care the most about.

00:21:58.300 By the way, let's go back for a few of you that maybe missed that episode.

00:22:01.180 I don't think people understand just how hard Democrats, the teachers' unions, didn't want this to happen,

00:22:07.820 and how hard you had to fight to keep it in there, because there was many times where we thought it may not make it.

00:22:13.140 Look, and it was particularly difficult, because the Senate parliamentarian,

00:22:18.120 to get anything through the reconciliation process, you have to go through the Senate parliamentarian.

00:22:22.940 And there are arcane rules for what is allowed and what is not allowed when you're doing reconciliation.

00:22:29.140 Three times the Senate parliamentarian struck this school choice provision.

00:22:33.620 And normally the way that happens, it's like litigation, where you have both sides.

00:22:39.100 The Democrats get to argue.

00:22:40.300 So the Democrats argued to the parliamentarian, stripped this out, and fought tooth and nail.

00:22:46.100 Now, normally it is staff.

00:22:48.960 It is staff of senators who go in and argue on both sides.

00:22:52.320 It is very unusual for a senator to do this.

00:22:54.840 I did this myself.

00:22:55.780 I went in and argued to the parliamentarian and her team directly.

00:23:00.180 And we ended up rewriting the provision.

00:23:02.900 We rewrote it three times to get it through.

00:23:05.240 So when she objected to something, we rewrote it to address that.

00:23:09.940 And we got it in.

00:23:11.600 The second provision that is going to have just generational impacts are the Trump accounts.

00:23:18.480 And starting next...

00:23:19.560 I love they're called Trump accounts.

00:23:20.840 It was a great marketing measure.

00:23:22.500 But this started with you, Senator.

00:23:24.540 And you could easily call this the Cruz accounts at the same time.

00:23:27.320 Yeah, but he's in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and so he gets to have his name on it.

00:23:33.180 And that's great.

00:23:34.020 He signed it in the law, and it is historic.

00:23:37.040 But I did write the provision.

00:23:39.120 And I got to say, the impact, what's going to happen next year?

00:23:42.800 Next year, on July 4th, every child in America is going to have a personal investment account

00:23:49.040 open for them.

00:23:50.760 Newborn children will have $1,000 automatically seeded into it.

00:23:55.160 Which is amazing.

00:23:56.740 Parents, families, employers can put up to $5,000 a year in a tax-advantaged account,

00:24:03.740 and all of that will be invested in the S&P 500.

00:24:07.300 It will be invested in a broad-based equity index invested in the stock market.

00:24:12.160 Two massive benefits from this.

00:24:14.500 Number one, every child in America will get the benefit of compound growth.

00:24:21.120 And that is incredibly powerful.

00:24:23.600 A little girl born next year, she has the $1,000 put in it automatically.

00:24:27.660 If her parents or family or an employer puts $5,000 a year, that's invested in the stock market.

00:24:33.220 We grow at the historical rate of average, let's assume, 7% of the S&P 500.

00:24:37.500 By the time she is 18, she will have $170,000 in that account.

00:24:49.000 And if she keeps investing $5,000 a year, by the time she's 35, she will have $700,000 in that account.

00:24:58.580 That's transformational.

00:25:00.020 And we're not talking rich kids.

00:25:01.460 We're talking the kids of a single mom.

00:25:04.060 You're talking everybody.

00:25:05.260 We're talking everybody.

00:25:06.280 That's money that she can use to buy a home, to start a business, to get an education. 1.00

00:25:12.380 I mean, that changes her entire life. 0.93

00:25:14.740 But secondly, and this is the part as a conservative that I'm really excited about,

00:25:18.560 we are creating a whole new generation of capitalists, a whole new generation of kids.

00:25:24.060 Every kid is going to be an owner of the biggest employers in America.

00:25:28.280 And so they won't think about companies as big, mean, scary corporations.

00:25:32.860 They'll look at their phone and they'll see the app and say, look, I own $100 of Apple or Boeing or McDonald's.

00:25:42.360 And that, I think, will change the country.

00:25:45.600 And without exaggeration, Ben, I think those two provisions are the most consequential provisions of the entire bill.

00:25:53.480 And, you know, it was interesting, as you know, a couple of weeks ago, I was at the White House with the president for a big press conference on the Trump accounts.

00:26:01.700 And Michael and Susan Dell were there.

00:26:03.700 And the two of them are giving six and a quarter billion dollars to put money in the accounts of millions of kids all over the country.

00:26:12.000 And we deliberately wrote this so that philanthropists could do that.

00:26:15.920 That was part of the design.

00:26:17.120 I wrote the legislation so these accounts would be able to accept gifts of philanthropy.

00:26:22.980 And it was interesting at the press conference where we were talking about the effect and transformational effect.

00:26:29.540 And you could actually see President Trump.

00:26:32.200 I think he really got, like, the impact of this at the press conference in a way I don't think he ever had.

00:26:39.180 And there was a reporter who asked him, said, Mr. President, are these Trump accounts going to be a major part of your legacy?

00:26:45.700 And you could kind of see him thinking about that and then just like, yes, yes, they will.

00:26:51.300 And I think that's absolutely right.

00:26:52.780 Look, I mean, in terms of my tenure in the Senate, there is nothing I am more proud of doing in the Senate in 13 years fighting for Texans

00:27:03.360 than passing the biggest school choice program in American history

00:27:06.860 and passing the Trump accounts into law.

00:27:09.120 And both of those, they're going to impact not just your and my kids, but our grandkids and their grandkids.

00:27:15.960 Those are victories at an historic level.

00:27:19.300 And that's why I say we've won victories we've never seen at this level.

00:27:24.280 In communities around the world, millions of children like Lucy face the crushing weight of poverty, hunger, illness,

00:27:32.040 and a lack of opportunity dim their bright futures.

00:27:35.900 But through Compassion International and local churches, everything is changing.

00:27:42.000 Lucy receives nourishing food, vital medical care, and the chance to go to school.

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00:27:54.220 It's a journey from vulnerability to empowerment.

00:27:56.840 And it's sparked literally by your love.

00:28:00.020 This transformation echoes far beyond Lucy, impacting her family, the community, and shaping the future of her nation.

00:28:07.380 And you can make this profound difference right now.

00:28:11.180 So join me in sponsoring a child.

00:28:13.640 Visit Compassion.com today.

00:28:16.540 You'll empower a life and change the world.

00:28:19.420 That's Compassion.com to learn more.

00:28:22.480 Senator, as we're doing our year in review, I love getting to say this one.

00:28:26.840 We had a big win on the issue of space.

00:28:29.100 We're not talking about you finding aliens or anything, but we do have an update on space.

00:28:33.460 That's near and dear to your heart with NASA and Houston, of course.

00:28:36.640 Talk about the big victory there.

00:28:38.620 Well, in the working families tax cut, we invested $10 billion in NASA and commercial space,

00:28:46.580 and in particular, in going back to the moon.

00:28:48.800 And again, because that falls within the jurisdiction of the Commerce Committee, I wrote this provision.

00:28:54.180 And we are in a race to go back to the moon.

00:28:56.960 We're in a race with China. 0.99

00:28:58.420 China has said publicly they are going to go to the moon by 2030, and they're trying to get back there.

00:29:03.600 And it's also a race not just to get there, but to also to build sustained human habitation on the surface of the moon,

00:29:11.480 to begin mining on the surface of the moon.

00:29:13.680 That's the next challenge that we're moving towards.

00:29:16.020 China is moving full speed ahead, and we did major investments to say America is going to beat China back to the moon. 0.94

00:29:24.720 We are going to have sustained human habitation on the lunar surface or in cislunar orbit.

00:29:30.620 And that investment, it is in the bill.

00:29:33.260 It is critically important.

00:29:34.480 And the objective is for us to land on the moon by 2028, two years before China, with President Trump still in the Oval Office.

00:29:42.460 And that investment will make it – and I'll tell you, this is a point I made.

00:29:47.560 If we lose, if we were to lose the race to the moon, I think the impact of seeing the Chinese on the moon before we could get there, 1.00

00:29:55.820 I think it would be a bigger blow to the country than Sputnik was.

00:29:59.920 Sputnik, when the Russians launched the first satellite, Sputnik, around the Earth, it was a massive blow. 0.71

00:30:06.360 So it started the space race, and I think losing the moon to China would be orders of magnitude worse. 0.92

00:30:13.280 That investment is in there.

00:30:14.700 It matters.

00:30:15.120 And it matters also enormously.

00:30:17.060 There are over 50,000 high-paying jobs in Texas that are directly connected to space.

00:30:22.420 So it's big for jobs in the economy as well.

00:30:26.560 I mean, selfishly, I just think it would be so cool for kids' minds to be blown, to see in HD people walking on the moon,

00:30:36.520 just the wonder and the inspiration that would come from that for an entire generation.

00:30:41.500 You know, with everything that's AI and technology-driven, like, just to have a moment of pause where we're like,

00:30:47.100 we went to the moon, and you can see it in HD.

00:30:49.480 I can't imagine what that does for kids that are dreamers for their futures and their education as well.

00:30:54.440 Look, I spend a lot of time at Johnson Space Center.

00:30:59.080 I spend a lot of time with NASA and, like, the inspiration that astronauts provide.

00:31:04.260 Now, do you know the connection that Rice University has to us going to the moon the first time?

00:31:09.100 No, I do not.

00:31:10.460 So it was at Rice University, at the Rice Stadium, you've been to that football stadium,

00:31:15.920 that JFK gave the speech where he committed, we will go to the moon within a decade.

00:31:23.200 And, in fact, what he said, he said, why does Rice play the University of Texas?

00:31:32.540 They do so not because it is easy, but because it is hard.

00:31:37.360 And that was his explanation for why are we going to the moon?

00:31:41.180 We're going to the moon for the same reason Rice plays UT.

00:31:44.220 Not because it's easy, because it's hard.

00:31:47.480 And it inspired millions of kids.

00:31:50.200 We're going to do that again, but it's also critical.

00:31:53.040 Listen, there are major economic benefits.

00:31:56.420 I predicted for a long time the first trillionaire is going to be made in space.

00:32:00.780 That may well be Elon Musk.

00:32:02.180 He's already halfway there.

00:32:03.880 I think the mining that we're going to see on the moon and ultimately on Mars is going

00:32:08.800 to generate enormous economic activity.

00:32:11.460 And it also matters from national security and from a military perspective, controlling

00:32:16.960 what is quite literally the high ground is really important for keeping America safe.

00:32:22.460 CAFE standards.

00:32:23.180 I want to make sure we get this in there before the end of the show.

00:32:25.180 Let's talk about that victory as well.

00:32:26.760 Another provision I wrote in the bill, we zeroed out CAFE standards.

00:32:32.020 Now, what are CAFE standards?

00:32:33.540 They're the rules the Biden administration put in place to drive up the cost of your

00:32:39.140 car and drive up the cost of your truck.

00:32:41.140 And what they did is they jacked up the mileage it had to get to what were unsustainable levels.

00:32:46.700 And they were doing that because they wanted to ban the internal combustion engine.

00:32:49.960 They wanted to make it impossible for you to buy a gasoline car.

00:32:53.880 They wanted to force you to buy an electric vehicle.

00:32:56.180 And by the way, let's be clear.

00:32:57.780 It also put you and your family at risk because of having to be forced to make the cars lighter.

00:33:05.540 They had to get rid of the steel in cars that made them so safe, like tanks.

00:33:09.480 And that's the reason why everything's now in plastic and the bumpers.

00:33:12.640 And if you've had a small wreck, you see how things just shatter.

00:33:16.120 It's because they're trying to meet those standards.

00:33:18.800 Yeah, look, my first car was a 1978 Ford Fairmont.

00:33:22.440 It was my grandfather's car that he gave it to me.

00:33:24.440 And it was we called it the green bomb when you were younger. 0.61

00:33:27.640 I knew it.

00:33:28.200 That was confirmation.

00:33:29.200 Are you kidding?

00:33:30.160 That was the coolest car.

00:33:31.420 We called it the green bomb. 0.95

00:33:32.580 And it was a tank. 1.00

00:33:33.800 And if you got a 16 year old boy, all 16 year old boys are idiots. 1.00

00:33:38.280 And for the teenagers listening, I apologize. 1.00

00:33:40.520 But I was there. 1.00

00:33:41.560 I was an idiot. 1.00

00:33:42.380 And I promise you, when you get older, you understand it's just part of life growing up. 1.00

00:33:47.100 And like putting your kids in a car that is big enough that if they hit something like 1.00

00:33:51.420 an idiot, that they're not going to be badly hurt or killed. 1.00

00:33:55.080 That matters. 1.00

00:33:55.920 As we zeroed it out, the effect of that is going to be to lower the cost of you getting

00:34:01.580 a car or a truck, lower it by thousands of dollars.

00:34:04.880 That's another victory that is in the bill.

00:34:06.700 And it also is going to save lives, just as you said, because you'll be able to make cars

00:34:11.180 that are safer with more steel and less plastic.

00:34:14.040 Yeah, it really is incredible.

00:34:15.360 Finally, one last thing I do want to hit.

00:34:17.180 And it's important one to end the show.

00:34:19.240 Take it down.

00:34:19.780 Something that you worked so hard on became a reality as well this year.

00:34:23.240 And it keeps kids safe.

00:34:24.760 Yeah, it's a great victory.

00:34:26.040 Look, there is a growing problem with what's called non-consensual intimate imagery.

00:34:31.280 And we're talking both real world so-called revenge porn, where you have boyfriend or

00:34:36.500 girlfriend, they have an intimate relationship, they take explicit pictures or videos of each

00:34:40.760 other, and then they have a breakup.

00:34:42.440 And one of them is ticked off and decides, all right, I'm going to stick it to you and

00:34:45.960 I'm going to release this to the world.

00:34:47.720 And it is a grotesque violation of privacy.

00:34:52.280 Nobody has a right to do that to somebody else.

00:34:55.300 There is, secondly, a more recent aspect of that, which is deepfakes. 0.68

00:35:03.660 And people are using AI to create deepfakes, where they take pictures of real people and

00:35:09.260 they use AI to make it appear that they're naked or in explicit and sexual situations.

00:35:14.480 More than 95% of the victims of this are women or teenage girls.

00:35:20.780 And so I drafted a bill that's called the Take It Down Act that, number one, makes it

00:35:25.780 a crime, makes it a felony to post non-consensual intimate imagery, either real pictures or fake

00:35:32.160 pictures.

00:35:32.660 And secondly, it gives you the right, if God forbid you're the victim of this, any tech

00:35:39.240 platform that is displaying that content, you have a federal statutory right to demand

00:35:43.920 they take it down, and they have to take it down immediately.

00:35:47.620 And we passed that through the Senate.

00:35:49.420 We passed that through the House.

00:35:51.520 The First Lady, Melania Trump, was a big champion. 1.00

00:35:53.900 She joined with me, and I was in the Rose Garden right next to the President and right

00:35:59.160 next to the First Lady when he signed that legislation protecting kids, protecting teenage 0.99

00:36:04.020 girls, teenage boys, women, protecting everyone, and also standing up to the abuse of AI, creating

00:36:11.720 deepfakes and victimizing people.

00:36:14.420 It's so important.

00:36:15.420 If you've ever known, and I know a family lost a child because of this.

00:36:19.700 They took their own life because of the shame, and they were being bullied.

00:36:23.220 It was online, and it was actually not even them.

00:36:25.660 It was a fake picture, but everyone thought it was this person.

00:36:29.700 After you meet with those families, you've done it.

00:36:32.080 You have a heart for them.

00:36:33.240 This is going to save lives as well.

00:36:35.260 I want to say it again.

00:36:36.160 Do not forget.

00:36:37.220 Download Verdict with Ted Cruz wherever you get your podcasts.

00:36:40.260 We do this show Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

00:36:41.580 We also do it as a video pod.

00:36:43.220 You can watch that on YouTube or Facebook as well.

00:36:46.220 And the Senate and I will be back with you more on this.

00:36:49.200 I can promise you a big win's ahead in the new year as well.

00:36:52.360 So make sure you don't miss a single episode.

00:36:54.660 And if you're listening on the radio right now, thank you so much for listening as well.

00:36:57.840 We'll see you back again real soon.

00:37:00.020 This is an iHeart Podcast.

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Verdict with Ted Cruz - December 19, 2025

A Historic Year of Victories

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