Verdict with Ted Cruz - Major Tax Cuts for virtually EVERY American Taxpayer, plus Bringing Ship-Building & Manufacturing Jobs Back to America

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00:01:20.600 As America marks its 250th anniversary,

00:01:23.460 we're looking back at two and a half centuries of rebellion and liberty

00:01:27.260 through the eyes of the heroes who defended it.

00:01:29.840 The whole thing about this country is freedom.

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00:01:35.540 On Medal of Honor, Stories of Courage,

00:01:37.680 we bring you the defining moments of valor

00:01:39.840 that went above and beyond the call of duty.

00:01:43.140 Listen to Medal of Honor on the iHeartRadio app,

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00:01:50.960 Welcome, it is Vertical Center Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.

00:01:54.380 It's nice to have you with us.

00:01:55.560 Senator, we've got some data that has come back, and it should make every American excited,

00:02:01.060 especially hardworking Americans that are working hourly wages, working overtime.

00:02:06.800 They are taking huge advantage of the major tax cuts that were passed in the big, beautiful bill.

00:02:13.280 Well, we have some stunning results in terms of how nearly every American in this country

00:02:18.040 got a meaningful tax cut from the working families tax cut.

00:02:21.600 We're going to break that all down for you. 0.69

00:02:22.980 We're also going to talk about bringing manufacturing and shipbuilding back to America, and in particular, defeating Russia and China in the Arctic with ice cutters, a big national security step forward and a big step forward for jobs and for the future of manufacturing in America.

00:02:41.540 but before we do all that i need to ask you for those of you who are not watching the video and

00:02:46.940 by the way we do this on youtube we do this on on rumble but but if you're not watching the video

00:02:52.040 i need to ask you man are you trapped in some sort of paisley hell like it really does seem like this

00:03:01.020 prison cell of beige paisley behind you that that that i'm looking at you going what on earth are my

00:03:11.040 eyes gazing upon so so i am more patriotic and love america more than you do right now in this

00:03:17.600 moment because i am in boston and we are doing our family vacation and i am at the oldest hotel

00:03:24.380 like running continuously running hotel in american history uh and this is the room that

00:03:29.720 they put me in to do the show tonight which is one of their like meeting board rooms but it's

00:03:34.500 the oldest hotel in america it's right where like everything happened in boston all the history is

00:03:41.040 out the front door and to the right and so that's where i am right now plus you know the parkhouse

00:03:45.600 rolls because don't act like you don't know what a parkhouse roll is i know you love those right

00:03:49.060 do you love those rolls you know what i'm talking about the yeast rolls i'm waiting you're a fan

00:03:53.200 right i'm trying very hard to do no carbs so so yes i love them but i'm trying to do no carbs so

00:03:58.220 i'm trying not to have them okay so i am at the hotel where those were created and so when you

00:04:04.000 get here they tell you they're like by the way this is the the park house that's yes the rolls

00:04:08.400 you can go in the restaurant right here and you can get the original recipe that started and went

00:04:13.200 all over the country so there you go so i got even that on you and they were really good if you were

00:04:17.820 here i promise you you would partake they're that good so i will say for the record you're saying

00:04:23.260 that that for vacation with your family you felt the need to flee bright red texas to flee the land

00:04:30.300 of liberty, the land of individual rights, to go to Elizabeth Warren's hometown, that

00:04:35.800 you wanted to be surrounded by Marxists who want to take your guns.

00:04:39.440 Is that right?

00:04:40.360 Is that your family vacation choice?

00:04:44.480 Well, the family vacation was we're going to go to where America started and the 250th

00:04:49.360 anniversary, and we wanted to show them all that America was and where it began and where

00:04:55.600 everything, where people fought and died for this country.

00:04:58.540 And I figured they're old enough to do that.

00:05:00.160 So that is that is the amen. Amen. And as you know, I lived in Boston three years during law school.

00:05:07.500 And I will say, I don't like the politics of the name of that law school you went to.

00:05:12.840 We should make sure we get that out there. Right. It was Boston Community College.

00:05:18.280 OK, there we go. And look, I don't like their politics of who they elect into office.

00:05:27.600 But I will say Boston is, A, a beautiful city, and B, the history.

00:05:32.760 Boston, along with Philadelphia and New York, are probably the most important cities in the founding of our country.

00:05:42.120 And in terms of just where the founding, and also Virginia, not sort of Richmond, but kind of all of Virginia.

00:05:48.960 You look at those collectively, they produced the most extraordinary generation of statesmen between Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, the author of the Declaration of Independence, an extraordinary leader, John Adams from Boston, Samuel Adams from Boston, Alexander Hamilton from New York via the Caribbean, George Washington from Virginia.

00:06:14.520 like like like the those for anyone who knows american history boston is is an extraordinary

00:06:22.100 place and and you know what i still have hope and call me listen i mean when i was a kid we

00:06:27.840 referred to it as the people's republic of taxachusetts yeah i still have hope i will tell

00:06:32.700 you i've spent real time campaigning and i've lived in boston three years i spent time there

00:06:36.960 are good conservatives there and most of them are sort of beaten down and they think like the

00:06:41.160 Harvard faculty liberals will run the state forever.

00:06:44.000 I actually have hope even for bright blue states like that, that the pendulum can shift.

00:06:48.960 But that being said, it hasn't shifted yet.

00:06:52.280 All right.

00:06:52.480 So, by the way, we have verdict listeners here.

00:06:54.320 We have had two thumbs up while we were walking a lot.

00:06:58.660 Yeah.

00:06:59.120 And that's a lot for here.

00:07:00.600 And then we've had three middle fingers to me while walking around with a family.

00:07:04.280 So we're almost at like 50 50, which is a lot higher than I thought we'd be at this point.

00:07:09.180 You got to keep track of it.

00:07:10.780 By the way, did I ever tell you a couple years ago I was down on the U.S. southern border in Texas but coming in from Mexico, and it was a border checkpoint where there were a lot of 18-wheeler truckers coming across, and I was just standing at the checkpoint.

00:07:28.100 And so there's just 18-wheeler after 18-wheeler coming across.

00:07:31.440 And I got to say, if you're driving a truck across the U.S.-Mexico border, you're not expecting to see, like, the Texas senator standing there at the checkpoint.

00:07:43.960 That's a fair point, yeah.

00:07:45.000 Every truck driver is startled, and I actually took an informal poll, and almost every single truck driver gave me a finger, either the thumb or the middle finger, and it was a beautiful informal poll, and I got to tell you that that particular day, the survey, the ratio was about 80-20.

00:08:07.760 I got about 80% thumbs up compared to 20% middle fingers, but almost nobody refrained from expressing a view.

00:08:14.740 And it was just one finger or the other, and I kind of laughed at all of them and said thank you and waved.

00:08:19.260 Yeah, you think you – yeah, God bless you and be safe on the roadways, right?

00:08:22.640 So you'll like this.

00:08:23.620 My oldest said, hey, Dad, I want to see Harvard.

00:08:26.300 And I was like, well, we're not going to go tour it and waste our time.

00:08:29.520 I was like, Dad has spoken at the Kennedy School several times, so one day maybe if I do that again, if they invite me back, then you can go.

00:08:35.520 But I said, we will drive and I'll show you where it is.

00:08:38.060 But you ain't going to college there.

00:08:39.740 That was that was like that not happening.

00:08:42.020 You're not going to Harvard.

00:08:43.100 And I feel good about that.

00:08:44.540 I feel good that that was like good parenting.

00:08:47.080 All right, Ben, let me let me ask you this quite seriously.

00:08:50.600 Your boys are world class golfers.

00:08:53.440 What would your reaction be if Harvard admitted them and asked them to play on the Harvard golf team?

00:08:58.740 Oh, I would say probably not just no, but hell no.

00:09:01.740 That would just be because I don't want their mind to just be totally corrupted.

00:09:04.440 By the way, I got to tell you this.

00:09:06.160 I didn't get to tell you this, so this is exciting news.

00:09:08.440 Bradley yesterday, this is super fun, he was three over through six holes.

00:09:15.380 He knew that he was three off the lead.

00:09:17.960 He went birdie eagle to qualify for the World Championships next year,

00:09:22.660 went into a three-way playoff, and in the three-way playoff,

00:09:27.320 he eagled the hole to beat the other two kids who had par putts,

00:09:31.060 so he's going to Worlds next year.

00:09:32.100 I just had to tell you.

00:09:32.840 It was like the most fun moment being a dad caddying because he knew what he had to do.

00:09:36.900 He went birdie, eagerly looked at me, and he gave me a fist bump and walked off the green.

00:09:40.220 It was so fun.

00:09:40.880 But if Harvard calls and says, we gave you a full ride, I'm going to be like, well, that's good news

00:09:45.360 because that means a bunch of other schools are going to call and give you a full ride one day.

00:09:48.680 And I can't imagine sending them to Harvard knowing how liberal and woke they are now.

00:09:54.720 Maybe it'll change.

00:09:55.740 I'd love for it to change because when I was in school, I would have gone to Harvard if I would have gotten in,

00:09:59.760 but I didn't, but I also didn't apply, let's be clear.

00:10:02.360 But I mean, like I would I wasn't afraid of it in 2000 when I was graduating.

00:10:07.660 I think I'm going to college now. I would be terrified to send my kid to Harvard.

00:10:11.840 Look, we'll see. I hope those schools come back.

00:10:15.860 And I will say my alma mater is Princeton and Harvard.

00:10:19.180 I think are probably embarrassed that I graduated from there.

00:10:23.780 That doesn't make me terribly happy.

00:10:26.240 but but i do think that there's a lot there's a lot to recommend them i had a wonderful time i

00:10:33.740 loved my time in college i loved my time in law school and and i do you know part of me grieves

00:10:39.600 at at how woke higher education has gotten particularly the the the more elite academic

00:10:46.400 institutions and i hope that changes i i do think one of the things the trump administration is

00:10:51.420 trying to do is to try and to take on the woke culture. That's a hard thing to change. Yes. But

00:10:57.080 listen, I would like many of our nation's leaders historically and probably in the future will

00:11:04.400 continue to get educations at the most exclusive schools. And I would like them to be not

00:11:11.340 communist indoctrination camps. So my hope is they'll get better over time. I don't know if

00:11:16.260 they will. All right, Senator. So let's get into these incredible tax breaks. And this is a story

00:11:20.900 that the media is refusing to cover because it's such incredible news for the average American,

00:11:26.080 hardworking American. Before we get to that, though, I do want to take a moment and talk to

00:11:29.900 you about the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews and the work that is

00:11:33.600 continuing to be done for those in need right now in Israel. When you hear about Israel in the news,

00:11:38.740 it's easy to think of headlines, politics, or another conflict far away. But for families in

00:11:44.660 Israel and Jews around the world, this is incredibly personal. Anti-Semitic attacks in

00:11:49.960 the holy land and across the globe are happening right now elderly holocaust survivors who endured

00:11:55.900 so much already again fear for their lives jewish families are praying for the freedom to worship

00:12:02.380 in safety and in moments like these your voice matters because your voice can remind them that

00:12:08.840 they're not alone the international fellowship of christians and jews is inviting you to leave a

00:12:14.440 personal prayer or message of encouragement that will be delivered directly to someone in israel

00:12:19.640 who needs hope right now not filtered through the media not lost online but personally delivered

00:12:26.280 a simple prayer a few heartfelt words they can lift the spirit of someone facing fear

00:12:31.560 uncertainty and isolation this is more than support this is standing with israel when it

00:12:37.300 matters the most go to pray ifcj.org that's pray p-r-a-y ifcj.org and you can submit your prayer

00:12:47.720 today. That's Prey, I-F-C-J.org. Senator, this story of what Republicans did with the big,

00:12:57.240 beautiful bill, we are now seeing the fruits of that legislation. It had an amazing impact

00:13:05.720 on tax day and filing for so many Americans, especially those working hourly wages, those

00:13:11.380 working overtime, just trying to get ahead for themselves or for their families. And if you look

00:13:17.580 at it in comparison to what the tax bill would have been for americans if democrats would have

00:13:23.140 gotten their way this is a story that i i i can't believe it's not being celebrated and yet the

00:13:28.740 media is acting like it didn't even happen yeah listen if you're a taxpayer in america the odds

00:13:34.720 are overwhelming that you got a tax cut as a result of the working families tax cut last year

00:13:39.640 that president trump signed into law the republican congress passed and and the odds are significant

00:13:44.900 that you got a big tax cut we're going to break down the numbers but but it's worth understanding

00:13:50.380 if you haven't heard that that's not an accident the media doesn't want you to hear that the

00:13:56.120 democrats don't want you to hear that they want you to believe that nothing happened let's look

00:13:59.740 at the data here's the data this is a story in the new york post the headline of which is almost

00:14:06.060 every u.s tax filer got a cut this year coming to a total of 82 billion dollars in relief this is

00:14:14.240 from the Treasury Department. Here's what the Post reported. Quote, nearly every person who

00:14:18.320 filed taxes this year received a tax cut, coming to a whopping $82 billion in relief, according

00:14:23.740 to the Treasury Department. Data released Tuesday showed 97% of filers scored a cut. 97%. Have you

00:14:31.560 seen that on ABC? Have you seen that on CNN? Have you seen that on MSNBC? Why haven't you? 97%.

00:14:39.840 The argument that liberals made to say no to this big, beautiful bill was they said it was

00:14:44.000 only going to affect the wealthiest one percenters the rich bernie sanders aoc was out it was a lie

00:14:50.940 right it was a lie because 97 means the majority of americans are not billionaires and millionaires

00:14:56.600 to use bernie sanders line so they just flat out lied to you and they knew it and the data are even

00:15:01.880 more compelling uh by the way the contrast if we had not passed the working families tax cut you

00:15:07.400 know what if what would have happened on january 1st there would have been a five trillion dollar

00:15:13.440 tax hike that's what democrats wanted instead of 97 percent of taxpayers having their taxes cut

00:15:19.540 you would have had i don't know if it's 97 percent would it but it would have been virtually every

00:15:23.980 taxpayer having a massive tax increase so that's the choice either a tax cut which is what has

00:15:31.200 happened or a massive tax increase. And here are the specific data. Treasury officials said

00:15:39.820 filers making $100,000 to $200,000 who tapped the new brakes, pocketed an average cut topping

00:15:49.880 $1,250. So if you made between $100,000 and $200,000, you got over $1,000 in tax relief.

00:15:58.160 While those with incomes between $50,000 and $100,000 grabbed more than $815 on average.

00:16:08.000 That's additional money in your pocket to pay for food, to pay for education, to pay for the needs your family has.

00:16:16.620 What else?

00:16:18.660 More than 7.5 million workers claim the no tax on tips tax break.

00:16:26.740 By the way, I am the author of No Tax on Tips.

00:16:29.420 If you're a waiter, if you're a waitress, if you're a bartender, if you're a taxi cab driver, if you claim no tax on tips, I wrote that law.

00:16:37.100 Seven and a half million workers benefit from it.

00:16:39.980 The average deduction was $7,000.

00:16:45.540 Now, I got to say to a waiter or a waitress or a taxi cab driver or a bartender or a barber, seven grand is real money.

00:16:53.640 You want to talk about delivering relief?

00:16:55.060 That's real money.

00:16:55.800 But you know what? That is small in terms of the number of filers compared to no tax on overtime.

00:17:03.200 How many filers do you think benefited from no tax on overtime?

00:17:06.740 Oh, it's going to be astronomical number compared to what the Democrats said.

00:17:10.500 They said, oh, this is not going to work and no one's going to care.

00:17:13.020 Well, guess what they did?

00:17:14.420 Well, more than twenty nine million filers.

00:17:18.960 Yep. Benefited from no tax on overtime.

00:17:21.240 the average deduction was three thousand one hundred dollars by the way where do they fall

00:17:28.060 the democrats in the media are going to say it's all the rich three quarters of the people who

00:17:33.080 benefited from no tax and overtime their income fell under one hundred thousand dollars you know

00:17:39.780 how much how many people earned under two hundred thousand dollars how much 96 this was a targeted

00:17:47.720 tax break to working-class Americans who needed it. By the way, the standard deduction was

00:17:55.260 doubled. That simplified life for 127 million filers, which is equivalent to 90 percent of

00:18:05.780 all returns filed. Have you seen that on the news? No, you haven't. And in fact, Treasury said that

00:18:11.100 number will go up because some people have filed extensions. They expect it to be more than 90

00:18:16.320 percent of filers will benefit from the double standard deduction you look at these numbers

00:18:21.380 center and and i go back to something that we mentioned earlier there wasn't a single democrat

00:18:26.560 if i'm not mistaken that voted in favor of this right they were all unanimously zero zero in the

00:18:32.120 house zero in the senate yeah so it was unanimous the democratic party and this should be a big

00:18:37.140 issue i think in the midterms they wanted a five trillion dollar tax increase on the american

00:18:42.720 worker and they didn't want to pass no tax on tips they didn't want to pass no tax on overtime

00:18:48.980 they didn't want to double the standard deduction they said let's be clear you elect us and we're

00:18:55.680 going to raise your taxes by five trillion dollars in the next tax cycle if they had it their way

00:19:00.480 that is the democratic party which is why the media is not talking about this uh the candidates

00:19:06.700 on the democratic side aren't talking about this like this affected almost every tax filer in

00:19:11.680 America in a positive way. Why on earth is this not getting more coverage than it is right now?

00:19:17.660 Look, it's up to us to share that. And that's one of the reasons for every one of you that

00:19:21.760 listen to this podcast, that watch this podcast, share it because your friends, your neighbors,

00:19:27.220 your family, your colleagues, they don't know this. The media is lying to them. They don't

00:19:31.980 want them to know that they've gotten a significant tax cut. Let's take the Trump accounts.

00:19:36.940 As you know, I wrote the Trump accounts, the Trump accounts and the school choice provision. Both of

00:19:41.240 them i wrote i think they're the two most consequential provisions of this entire bill

00:19:45.760 to date more than 5.5 million trump accounts have been opened for kids under 18 and 1.4

00:19:56.420 million kids are eligible for the one thousand dollar contributions that that are there for

00:20:03.400 newborn kids incredible how many of the kids do you think are are from families earning less than

00:20:09.500 two hundred thousand dollars i would bet a large percentage of them and that's exactly the way you

00:20:13.860 guys wrote this yep 86 so when the democrats of the media say oh this is just a benefit for the

00:20:21.920 rich that is a lie 86 are going to kids of families earning less than two hundred thousand

00:20:28.960 dollars uh all right let's take uh on top of that no tax on social security that that is obviously

00:20:36.580 targeted towards seniors. Yeah. More than 30 million Americans claimed a deduction for no

00:20:43.900 tax on Social Security. The average deduction is more than $7,500. Look, many of our listeners are

00:20:51.940 young. We've got a lot of listeners who are at high school, who are in college, who are young

00:20:56.040 working professionals. But we also have we have Gen X listeners and we have we have listeners that

00:21:02.860 seniors. If you're a senior, if you're on Social Security, no tax on Social Security provided real

00:21:09.020 relief to you. And by the way, if you have a family member, if you have a mom or grandfather

00:21:15.080 or uncle or aunt or family members on Social Security, send them this podcast. Let them know

00:21:21.240 that their taxes went down for one reason and one reason only, because President Trump was

00:21:27.960 re-elected and because we had a Republican House and Senate. And if they like their taxes going

00:21:32.760 down, they want to continue to have a Republican House and Senate. Now, what is interesting,

00:21:38.560 do you know what the benefit is to GDP from the working families tax cut? What's the number?

00:21:46.980 The estimate is that the GDP is 1.2 percent greater in 2026 this year. Next year, it will

00:21:55.780 be 1.4 percent greater in 2027 and then in 2028 it will be 1.5 percent greater before settling in

00:22:06.180 at a 1.2 percent long-term gain. That is real wealth that is impacting real families and it's

00:22:14.480 not just a handful of gazillionaires. It is every worker in America. That's real results

00:22:21.020 and the media desperately doesn't want you to know about this. I want to take a quick moment

00:22:25.720 and talk to you about an incredible organization

00:22:27.900 and it is called Compassion International

00:22:30.640 and how you can get involved.

00:22:33.020 I want to be honest with you for a second

00:22:35.320 about how an act of compassion really feels.

00:22:38.360 A couple of years ago,

00:22:39.440 I made the choice to partner

00:22:41.200 with an amazing organization

00:22:43.380 called Compassion International.

00:22:45.420 Why?

00:22:46.220 Because I wanted to sponsor a child in need.

00:22:48.980 It was a nice idea, sure,

00:22:51.160 but I had no idea just how much that simple act

00:22:54.900 would change my life as well. 0.98

00:22:57.100 I sponsored Nadia and got to watch her life 1.00

00:23:00.180 change right in front of my eyes,

00:23:02.000 going from starving literally alone on the streets

00:23:05.640 to getting the healthcare and education

00:23:07.600 she needs to reach her God-given full potential.

00:23:12.100 I got to be a part of that change

00:23:14.260 and the light of that compassion

00:23:16.300 not only illuminates in her,

00:23:18.360 it illuminates now in me.

00:23:20.460 That is the power of compassion.

00:23:22.580 The light of Christ shines on all of us.

00:23:26.820 Feel it for yourself and change literally a child's life.

00:23:30.840 Change the world and you also change yourself.

00:23:33.940 You can sponsor a child today.

00:23:35.880 Visit Compassion.com.

00:23:38.360 That's Compassion.com.

00:23:41.620 I want to move Senator on to another really interesting story.

00:23:44.780 It deals with national security, especially what's happening in the Middle East and Iran right now.

00:23:49.240 And something that we've highlighted and talked about on this show in the past, and that was that shipbuilding was not happening in the United States of America.

00:23:57.840 That is a national security issue, and it was a very clear national security issue that was brought up.

00:24:04.100 You were one of those sounding the alarm on it because when you're dependent on your ships being made overseas and you have things that happen, whether it's COVID, right?

00:24:12.240 That's not even a war. But with covid and all of these issues that we're now seeing in the Middle East, we needed to bring shipbuilding back to the United States of America.

00:24:20.040 And now we are seeing that actually happen. Yeah.

00:24:23.220 Another one of the major provisions of the working families tax cut was the funding for the Coast Guard and the way it works in the Senate.

00:24:30.540 when you're writing a bill in reconciliation, which is the process we used to pass the working

00:24:35.640 families tax cut, each committee chairman writes the portion of the bill that is within his or her

00:24:42.240 jurisdiction. I'm the chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

00:24:47.040 We've got jurisdiction over about 40 percent of the U.S. economy. Every single provision that was

00:24:52.880 in my jurisdiction, I was responsible for writing, and I did write. One of the subjects that is within

00:25:00.300 the jurisdiction of the Commerce Committee is the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard falls within our

00:25:03.840 jurisdiction. We funded more than $24 billion, billion with a B, into the Coast Guard. That is

00:25:13.920 the largest single investment in the history of the United States in the Coast Guard. I want to

00:25:19.340 give you a sense of the order of magnitude of that. The annual budget of the Coast Guard is

00:25:23.980 between 11 and 12 billion dollars. In one year, we invested more than double the annual budget

00:25:30.880 of the Coast Guard to rebuild their fleet, to rebuild, to purchase new ships, to purchase new

00:25:35.820 helicopters, to purchase new capital and infrastructure. One of the biggest elements

00:25:41.380 of our investment was Arctic ice cutters. So if you look at the Arctic, near the North Pole and

00:25:50.180 all around the arctic yeah that is a major national security contested domain russia and 0.98

00:25:57.740 china are both killing us in the arctic and the united states has fallen way behind and we put

00:26:03.960 in the funding to build new arctic ice cutters and the trump administration signed a contract

00:26:11.380 to purchase 11 new arctic ice cutters and in particular to build many of them here in the

00:26:17.620 United States. So I started this week, Monday morning, down in Galveston, Texas. And in Galveston,

00:26:23.720 we had a groundbreaking for a brand new shipyard where there's over a billion dollars being

00:26:29.340 invested. It's going to create more than 2,000 jobs to build Arctic ice cutters. And not only

00:26:35.020 is that important for that investment, those new jobs, but that's an expertise that doesn't exist

00:26:40.900 in the United States. We're going to see more commercial ships built in the United States and

00:26:45.840 in Texas, in Galveston, in Port Arthur, because of this investment.

00:26:49.660 I spoke at the groundbreaking.

00:26:52.000 Give a listen to what I had to say at the groundbreaking.

00:26:54.080 And I was very proud when President Trump announced that $3.5 billion was going to Davie Defense

00:27:01.420 to build five Arctic security cutters and to build them here in the Texas Gulf Coast.

00:27:08.440 That is going to produce over 2,000 high-paying jobs here on the Texas Gulf Coast.

00:27:21.900 And mark my word, that's just the beginning, because that is going to fuel a renaissance of shipbuilding right here on the Texas Gulf Coast.

00:27:38.440 a final observation about galveston folks here are really particular about galveston

00:27:49.560 it's a thing you will learn there's a phrase that folks from galveston will tell you which is boi

00:27:56.800 born on the island and it's a little bit there's an old line that you never ask anyone if he's a

00:28:03.640 Texan. If he is, he'll tell you. And if he's not, you don't want to embarrass the guy.

00:28:11.020 I love, by the way, that that that line there, Senator, because it is, by the way, totally

00:28:16.200 accurate. But this is a really big, I think, moment, as you described it, for national security.

00:28:22.220 It also makes us not dependent on on foreign countries and foreign workforces for things

00:28:29.260 that deal with national security. This is part of what you've been advocating for with America

00:28:33.160 First policy is with the Trump administration as well. And being able to do this and do it quickly

00:28:39.200 and also to get these cutters back into the Arctic where we need them from a national security 0.73

00:28:44.460 standpoint, this is a big win all the way around. And it produces American jobs and not just a few.

00:28:50.740 As you mentioned, you've got thousands and then you have the support jobs around those jobs as

00:28:55.480 well. Well, that's right. And let me tell you a little bit of history. Look, you're a relatively

00:29:01.840 new Texan. You're from Memphis. So this is a bit of history that I shared at the press conference

00:29:07.260 that you may not know and that everyone in Galveston knew, but maybe other people don't.

00:29:14.660 So Galveston used to be the largest city in Texas. Wow. Galveston was called the queen of

00:29:23.760 the Gulf Coast. Galveston was also called the Wall Street of the Southwest. And Galveston was

00:29:32.360 called the Ellis Island of the South. And just like Ellis Island, when people came as immigrants, 0.98

00:29:37.440 they would come to Galveston. That was the port of entry where vast numbers of people came to

00:29:44.400 America through Galveston. And what happened is in 1900, there was a devastating hurricane that

00:29:50.560 that killed between 8,000 and 12,000 people in Galveston.

00:29:55.540 And they didn't have the technology to have any early warning signs.

00:29:58.280 So the hurricane just hit and destroyed the city.

00:30:02.160 And it remains the single most devastating natural disaster in U.S. history.

00:30:07.520 But a really cool fact that I pointed out, and I bet you you don't know this, Ben,

00:30:13.560 in 1836, Galveston was the capital of the Republic of Texas.

00:30:18.860 The Republic of Texas, we were our own nation. And Galveston was our capital right when we became our own nation. And so I said, look, it's really special that we're seeing thousands of new manufacturing jobs coming to Galveston, shipbuilding jobs.

00:30:33.800 And I mentioned in the clip we just played the phrase BOI. And by the way, you'll meet people

00:30:40.160 from Galveston who are fifth, sixth, seventh generation BOI, born on island. And what I

00:30:45.620 called for at the press conference, I said, listen, every Arctic ice cutter you build there,

00:30:49.880 I turned to the CEO of the company Davies that's going to be building them. And I said, I hope and

00:30:55.280 expect on every one of those Arctic ice cutters somewhere in the interior on the hall, you will

00:31:01.260 engrave the simple letters BOI because those Arctic ice cutters will have been born on the

00:31:07.820 island of Galveston. And that's an awesome thing, but it's an awesome thing for American jobs. You

00:31:13.780 look at what President Trump is fighting to do, what I'm fighting to do, it is bring jobs back to

00:31:19.760 American manufacturing jobs. And I'll tell you a little bit, let me bring you a little bit inside

00:31:23.960 the story. So the bill we wrote, we had the funding for what was likely to be five to six

00:31:30.560 Arctic ice cutters. And there was a battle. There was a battle that went to the to the to the White

00:31:36.800 House about where that contract would go. And that battle was principally between Texas and

00:31:43.040 Louisiana. Now, I love Louisiana. My parents met in New Orleans. My mom went to high school in

00:31:47.160 Baton Rouge. Louisiana is a great state. And to be clear, Louisiana is the home of the Speaker of

00:31:52.700 the House, Mike Johnson and Steve Scalise, the House Majority Leader. They're both very good

00:31:57.120 friends they they were understandably fighting for their state and wanted the ship building in

00:32:02.140 louisiana i was fighting for texas and i will tell you it was a knife fight at the white house i spoke

00:32:08.000 repeatedly to the president of the united states i spoke to the senior staff in the white house

00:32:12.340 over and over and over again and it was a real fight we didn't know who was going to win texas

00:32:17.100 and louisiana and i want to give the president real props here look we all know before he was

00:32:22.380 in the White House, the president was a businessman. And he is very committed to getting more for less.

00:32:29.960 So the proposal, the legislation that had been passed was funding to build five to six new ice

00:32:35.020 cutters. Trump said, that's not enough. I don't want five to six. I want 11. And so they found

00:32:42.480 new funding that had been appropriated by Congress. And what they ended up doing was approving both.

00:32:47.440 So there's several ice cutters being built in Louisiana. There's several being built in Texas.

00:32:50.860 And it was a win win. And it's a great example. He went to the shipbuilding companies and he said, I want you to cut your prices and deliver more ships. And they did. And this was not staff driven. This was, you know, Trump is a builder.

00:33:07.900 So he I mean, he likes negotiating a contract and he leaned in and instead of five to six ice cutters, we're getting 11 instead of just one place, Louisiana or Texas.

00:33:18.040 We're getting both and we're getting thousands and thousands of new jobs.

00:33:22.140 And we're going to be able to compete with and protect our national security in the Arctic against Russia and China.

00:33:27.380 It is a win win all around.

00:33:30.140 It really is an incredible story.

00:33:31.440 And again, when you go back to fighting for America first, this is what you get when you get the votes to do it.

00:33:37.200 It's incredible.

00:33:38.020 Congrats and a big victory for American workers there.

00:33:41.020 Don't forget we do this show Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

00:33:43.160 Hit that subscriber auto-download button so you don't miss an episode.

00:33:46.760 And what we told you today, please share it on social media so other people hear the news about the tax cuts.

00:33:52.280 It really is incredible.

00:33:53.660 And the Senate and I will see you back here on Friday morning.

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Verdict with Ted Cruz - June 03, 2026

Major Tax Cuts for virtually EVERY American Taxpayer, plus Bringing Ship-Building & Manufacturing Jobs Back to America

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