Verdict with Ted Cruz - Trump WINS at SCOTUS, Reshaping the Learning Landscape & What Moviegoers Love and Critics Ignore Week In Review

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.640 Guaranteed human.

00:00:05.380 Welcome.

00:00:06.040 It is Verdict with Ted Cruz.

00:00:07.600 Week in Review.

00:00:08.660 Ben Ferguson with you, and I hope you are having a fabulous 4th of July weekend with

00:00:13.340 your family, being safe on the road if you're traveling as well.

00:00:16.620 We've got some major stories for you that you may have missed this 4th of July week.

00:00:20.960 First up, major victories coming from the Supreme Court, helping parents, and also making

00:00:27.900 sure that you get to make decisions on what happens when your kids go to schools.

00:00:32.800 I'll have those details in a moment.

00:00:34.920 Also, legislation on school choice made it into the big, beautiful bill.

00:00:40.440 There were many that wanted to get rid of it.

00:00:42.720 And we'll give you the story behind how we kept it in the bill.

00:00:46.260 And finally, for a little fun for the 4th of July weekend, the last 10 great movies of

00:00:52.620 the 21st century given to you by none other than Senator Ted Cruz.

00:00:56.720 It's the Week in Review, and it starts right now.

00:01:00.680 All right, so let's start with universal injunctions and the Trump v.

00:01:05.020 Casa case.

00:01:06.800 This is also, by the way, something that you chaired the subcommittee hearing on that very

00:01:12.820 issue earlier this month.

00:01:14.720 So explain why this is such an important issue for everyone listening.

00:01:20.180 Well, this is a case challenging President Trump's executive order on birthright citizenship.

00:01:25.740 Birthright citizenship is the law that says that a baby born in America is a U.S. citizen,

00:01:32.200 even if that baby's parents are illegal, even if they came illegally precisely to have that

00:01:37.560 baby in America.

00:01:38.340 Nonetheless, that baby is a U.S. citizen. 0.98

00:01:41.300 As a policy matter, I think that is a very foolish policy.

00:01:46.080 It is a policy that incentivizes illegal immigration. 0.58

00:01:49.620 You see people, I spend a lot of time at the southern border.

00:01:53.220 I go out on midnight patrols with the border patrol agents.

00:01:56.700 We see everyday pregnant women coming across the border illegally, coming across, being brought 0.57

00:02:02.400 in by human traffickers with the express purpose of coming here to have their baby in America

00:02:07.500 because that baby then becomes an anchor baby.

00:02:10.120 That baby becomes a U.S. citizen.

00:02:11.600 That doesn't make any sense.

00:02:13.380 And by the way, most of the other countries on earth don't have that policy.

00:02:16.600 If you sneak into another country illegally, most other countries don't make them a citizen

00:02:21.320 of that country.

00:02:22.660 It is an accident of American history that our law has done that.

00:02:27.060 And so for more than a decade, I've been advocating for ending birthright citizenship. 0.91

00:02:33.320 Now, Ben, there is an open legal debate about how you can end birthright citizenship.

00:02:38.440 There are some legal scholars who argue it can only be done through a constitutional amendment.

00:02:44.660 And the reason is part of the predicate for birthright citizenship is the language of the

00:02:50.280 14th Amendment that talks about granting citizenship to people born in America.

00:02:55.920 Now, there's a phrase in the 14th Amendment which is subject to the jurisdiction thereof.

00:03:03.020 And legal scholars argue back and forth.

00:03:05.760 Some say you can only change birthright citizenship through a constitutional amendment. 0.96

00:03:10.460 If that's the case, we should have an amendment because it's a policy that is foolish.

00:03:15.680 Others say Congress can pass legislation to end birthright citizenship because someone who

00:03:21.680 comes here illegally is not subject to the jurisdiction thereof, is not subject to

00:03:26.220 American jurisdiction, but rather came here illegally.

00:03:29.140 I've introduced legislation to end birthright citizenship through legislation.

00:03:34.040 What President Trump has done is he's tried to do it a third way, which is through an executive

00:03:39.060 order.

00:03:39.980 That's going to be a harder hurdle to get through, but he's trying to do it.

00:03:43.560 And on the policy grounds, he is exactly right.

00:03:46.760 So what happened is in this case, there was a lawsuit challenging President Trump's executive

00:03:52.440 order purporting to eliminate birthright citizenship.

00:03:57.300 And the district judge issued a nationwide injunction, a so-called universal injunction.

00:04:04.180 So ordinarily, courts have jurisdiction, have authority over the parties in front of them.

00:04:10.540 So if you have two parties in a car wreck and they crash into each other and one party

00:04:15.820 sues the other, the court has jurisdiction over those two parties to say, okay, you're at fault.

00:04:21.000 You pay for the repairs and the medical bills of the person injured.

00:04:23.720 That is called, under the Constitution, Article 3 of the Constitution, courts are given jurisdiction

00:04:29.920 over cases and controversies, so actual disputes between real people.

00:04:34.900 What the district judge did in this case is issued an injunction prohibiting Donald Trump

00:04:41.580 and prohibiting the entire federal government from enforcing the birthright citizenship executive

00:04:46.820 order against anybody, not just against the parties in front of the court.

00:04:50.040 But 330 million people in this country, the court said, you cannot enforce this against anybody.

00:04:56.600 It is a universal injunction.

00:04:59.900 That is something that for the first 100 plus years of our country never occurred.

00:05:07.220 Universal injunctions began occurring more frequently, but not that much more frequently.

00:05:12.620 There have been over 40 universal injunctions issued against Donald Trump

00:05:17.320 in the first five months of his presidency.

00:05:19.940 Now, how does that compare to the historical record?

00:05:23.540 There are more universal injunctions that have been issued against President Trump

00:05:28.060 than were issued in the entire 20th century, from 1900 to 2000.

00:05:34.060 There have been more in the last five months than there were in those 100 years.

00:05:41.220 There have been more universal injunctions issued against President Trump than were issued against

00:05:48.060 all eight years of George W. Bush, all eight years of Barack Obama, and all four years of Joe Biden.

00:05:55.440 Five months, Trump has even more than that.

00:05:57.940 It has been an abuse of power.

00:05:59.940 And as you noted, I have been very vocal.

00:06:01.980 I've been laying out the case.

00:06:03.120 I chaired a Judiciary Committee hearing focused on exactly this abuse of power.

00:06:08.040 This is the next wave of lawfare.

00:06:11.200 During the last four years, we saw Democrat prosecutors indicting Donald Trump

00:06:15.360 that was using the courts to attack their political enemy to try to stop the voters from re-electing Donald Trump.

00:06:22.100 That didn't work.

00:06:23.280 They failed.

00:06:24.460 Once President Trump was re-elected, this was the next iteration of lawfare.

00:06:28.780 Get Democrat attorneys general, get left-wing radical groups

00:06:33.480 to go seek out radical district judges put on the bench by Joe Biden and Barack Obama

00:06:38.980 to issue injunctions and shut down the entire Trump agenda

00:06:42.560 because, and understand, these Democrat attorneys general,

00:06:47.200 they don't believe in democracy.

00:06:49.040 They don't believe the voters have a right to decide this is what we want

00:06:52.140 and to elect someone to carry it out.

00:06:54.000 Instead, they want courts to stand in the way.

00:06:56.120 Well, you and I talked about it on an earlier podcast, what I thought was likely here

00:07:02.200 and what I predicted on this podcast.

00:07:05.380 As I said, I think the Supreme Court is going to rein in universal injunctions.

00:07:11.560 The Supreme Court is going to make clear this is an abuse of power.

00:07:14.680 So I was really optimistic because in terms of the tools we have to rein in universal injunctions,

00:07:20.520 the Supreme Court acting is by far the best.

00:07:22.960 Well, on Friday, they did.

00:07:25.580 Their decision was fantastic.

00:07:27.480 It was 6-3.

00:07:28.920 The decision was written by Amy Coney Barrett.

00:07:31.200 It is the most important opinion she has written in her tenure on the court.

00:07:35.620 And it is very strong.

00:07:37.580 It makes clear that individual district judges do not have the legal authority,

00:07:42.980 they don't have the jurisdiction, to issue universal injunctions.

00:07:46.920 That is a massive victory for the rule of law,

00:07:49.980 and it is a massive blow against the lawfare that the radical left is waging against President Trump.

00:07:56.120 And finally, the other one that you mentioned earlier,

00:07:58.940 this one for me is so important for parental rights and getting parental rights back in our public schools

00:08:05.820 because there was a massive fight where parents were saying,

00:08:10.760 we should be able to opt our kids out of this LGBTQ plus curriculum. 1.00

00:08:17.780 There was a lawsuit.

00:08:19.220 It went to the Supreme Court.

00:08:20.600 It favored on the side of parents 6-3.

00:08:24.060 This was massive for so many parents that are concerned about their kids being indoctrinated by the radical left.

00:08:30.700 Yeah, this case arose out of Montgomery County in Maryland.

00:08:35.540 And Montgomery County has a very diverse population.

00:08:39.120 And the Montgomery County School Board, unfortunately, is one of the more woke school boards in America.

00:08:45.620 And so they put in place an aggressive LGBTQ curriculum.

00:08:52.180 And they mandated it, and we're not talking high schoolers.

00:08:56.860 We're talking young kids, kids kindergarten through fifth grade.

00:09:01.820 And they pushed content that was pushing LGBT content, that was pushing transgender content,

00:09:11.480 to little children, 5, 6, 7, 8-year-olds.

00:09:14.380 And a group of parents said, hey, this is wrong.

00:09:19.360 A group of parents, and they included Catholics, they included Muslims,

00:09:23.220 they said, we don't want our school indoctrinating, brainwashing our kids, 0.98

00:09:29.080 that you think it's great to be gay, to be transgender, you think it's great,

00:09:33.900 like if you're a boy, one day you think you're a girl. 0.58

00:09:36.660 It's not the school's job to tell our 5-year-olds that's your ideology.

00:09:41.140 And so they sued, and the school board said, basically, go jump in a lake.

00:09:48.780 We're going to indoctrinate your kids, and you have no right.

00:09:52.960 And on appeal, well, the district court and the court of appeals both ruled against the parents

00:10:02.100 and said they had no right.

00:10:04.000 And it went to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court 6-3 upheld the right of the parents

00:10:11.120 to opt out of that curriculum.

00:10:14.080 And the court said, quote, because it has long recognized the rights of parents

00:10:18.060 to direct the religious upbringing of their children,

00:10:21.800 the court concluded that the parents are likely to succeed on the claim

00:10:25.860 that the board's policies unconstitutionally burdens their religious exercise.

00:10:31.320 Justice Alito wrote the majority opinion for a 6-3 court,

00:10:35.760 and they said that parents' rights are violated when the government, quote,

00:10:41.720 substantially interferes with their children's religious development.

00:10:46.320 And so this is a great protection for parental rights.

00:10:50.900 Look, parents ought to be in charge of what is being taught to their kids.

00:10:54.840 It's also a great victory for religious liberty.

00:10:56.760 If a parent wants to teach kids to embrace a radical agenda, whether on LGBT or anything else,

00:11:05.480 a parent has a right to do that.

00:11:07.280 But the school system should not be indoctrining children,

00:11:11.200 in particular young children.

00:11:13.100 Kindergarteners is what this case was about.

00:11:15.320 And so this is a big victory, three big victories for our constitutional rights,

00:11:21.900 for common sense, and all three of them were 6-3 out of the Supreme Court.

00:11:25.640 Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation,

00:11:28.660 you can go back and listen to the full podcast from earlier this week.

00:11:33.160 Canadian women are looking for more. 1.00

00:11:35.260 More out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them.

00:11:39.440 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.

00:11:43.200 I'm Jennifer Stewart.

00:11:44.380 And I'm Catherine Clark.

00:11:45.600 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.

00:11:49.340 Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers,

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00:11:54.780 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.

00:11:58.320 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

00:12:04.180 Now on to story number two there, because it's huge,

00:12:07.780 because that's not the only thing that was transformative in this bill.

00:12:10.840 Something you've been championing now,

00:12:12.980 and I would say it's part of the legacy of your career,

00:12:16.060 is school choice.

00:12:17.460 And there's some big stuff in this bill also on school choice.

00:12:21.180 So school choice has been my passion for 30 years.

00:12:25.460 I've been very active in the school choice movement.

00:12:27.640 In 2017, when we did the first Trump tax cut,

00:12:30.960 I authored the legislation that expanded College 529 savings plans.

00:12:35.840 So now parents can save for K-12 education.

00:12:38.820 We got that through.

00:12:39.840 It passed.

00:12:40.800 And it was, at the time,

00:12:42.080 the most far-reaching federal school choice legislation that had ever passed.

00:12:46.640 And there are millions of kids now

00:12:48.520 whose parents save for K-12 education using 529s.

00:12:53.340 This time around,

00:12:54.560 I took 529s and I expanded them.

00:12:57.320 I expanded what you can spend them for.

00:12:59.360 And I raised the cap.

00:13:01.160 It used to be you could spend $10,000 a year from the account.

00:13:03.720 Now you can spend $20,000 a year.

00:13:05.340 But that actually is the smallest piece on school choice.

00:13:08.900 That would be huge in any other year.

00:13:11.560 But what we got in this year

00:13:14.320 is the federal government will now grant a federal tax credit,

00:13:20.920 dollar for dollar,

00:13:22.460 for every taxpayer up to $1,700.

00:13:26.720 So, Ben, you pay taxes every year.

00:13:28.880 You pay more than $1,700 in taxes.

00:13:31.580 When this goes into effect,

00:13:33.980 if you write a $1,700 check

00:13:39.260 to a scholarship-granting organization in Texas,

00:13:42.700 you will get a $1,700 credit on your taxes.

00:13:46.720 In other words, it's dollar for dollar.

00:13:48.580 It disappears from your tax liability.

00:13:51.280 What this will do

00:13:52.980 is this is going to unleash

00:13:55.540 billions and billions of dollars of new scholarships

00:13:59.280 for K-12 education in the states.

00:14:02.140 And the way it operates,

00:14:04.000 every state has to choose to opt in.

00:14:06.000 So Texas will opt in.

00:14:08.780 I suspect a number of blue states will not opt in

00:14:11.540 because the teachers' unions will not want them to.

00:14:14.100 They will not want scholarships

00:14:15.260 for kids to be able to go to the school of their choice.

00:14:18.720 And the way we wrote the rule,

00:14:20.420 the law, the state has to opt in.

00:14:23.620 But Texas will have scholarship-granting organizations,

00:14:27.240 and any taxpayer could write a check

00:14:30.100 up to $1,700 a year

00:14:32.360 and get a full tax credit on their IRS,

00:14:35.300 what they owe.

00:14:36.940 That is going to result

00:14:38.460 in millions of kids across America,

00:14:41.780 many of whom are stuck in failing schools,

00:14:44.600 schools that are not learning to read,

00:14:45.960 they're not learning to write,

00:14:47.300 schools where there's violence, 0.98

00:14:48.520 they're drug dealers, 0.84

00:14:49.440 schools where their future is really in peril.

00:14:52.160 And they're suddenly going to have the ability

00:14:55.420 to get a scholarship

00:14:56.440 to go to the school of their choice,

00:14:59.460 to get a real education,

00:15:00.720 to get a better education,

00:15:01.620 to be safe,

00:15:02.400 to not be subject to violence.

00:15:05.180 This is,

00:15:05.840 I think school choice is the civil rights issue

00:15:08.060 of the 21st century.

00:15:09.820 This has never happened before.

00:15:12.200 And I got to tell you,

00:15:13.540 I fought tooth and nail.

00:15:15.960 This almost got stripped out of the bill

00:15:18.700 about five different times.

00:15:20.400 And I made clear,

00:15:21.860 I'll shut this whole bill down

00:15:23.500 if we don't get school choice in there.

00:15:25.840 And this is,

00:15:26.920 I could not be more excited

00:15:29.000 about any provision in this bill

00:15:31.160 than the impact school choice is going to have

00:15:33.940 for the next generation.

00:15:36.740 So on these two issues,

00:15:38.840 school choice and also the savings accounts,

00:15:41.880 when does that start to become a reality timeline?

00:15:45.360 There's a lot of people that say,

00:15:46.520 hey, we pass bills

00:15:47.480 and then things that were supposed to happen

00:15:49.520 don't happen.

00:15:50.220 They get undone

00:15:51.040 because there's a new president that comes in

00:15:53.240 or you see a Senate flip

00:15:54.940 or the House flip,

00:15:55.880 whatever it may be.

00:15:57.440 So how sure are we

00:15:58.860 that we are going to see the fruits

00:16:00.400 of this fight and this labor?

00:16:02.920 Yeah, these are both going to happen

00:16:04.360 and they're both going to happen

00:16:05.340 in the next year.

00:16:06.260 For the Trump accounts,

00:16:07.720 I wrote into it an effective date

00:16:09.740 of one year from the signing.

00:16:11.740 So if it's signed on July 4th,

00:16:14.040 these will start on July 4th, 2026,

00:16:17.360 our nation's 250th anniversary.

00:16:19.520 And I think that's something

00:16:20.440 particularly fantastic.

00:16:22.260 I'm quite confident President Trump

00:16:23.740 will make a big deal about the facts

00:16:25.360 that these accounts are being opened

00:16:27.240 on our nation's birthday

00:16:28.500 or if it ends up being signed

00:16:30.920 at a slightly different date,

00:16:32.240 somewhere on or about our nation's birthday.

00:16:34.740 A great celebration.

00:16:36.720 Same thing.

00:16:37.840 The tax deductions are going to start,

00:16:39.740 I believe, next year

00:16:40.940 on the school choice tax deductions.

00:16:43.180 So these will happen.

00:16:44.280 They will happen quickly.

00:16:45.140 Now, one question people are asking,

00:16:48.060 what happens next?

00:16:49.080 The Senate passed this.

00:16:50.860 What happens next?

00:16:52.300 Well, we sent the whole bill to the House.

00:16:55.920 They have two choices.

00:16:58.160 Number one, so they're coming back in session.

00:17:02.520 They can take it up and pass it.

00:17:04.360 And if they pass the bill that we just passed,

00:17:06.920 it will go to the president

00:17:08.140 and he can sign it.

00:17:08.980 And he said he wants to sign it

00:17:10.140 on July 4th of this year.

00:17:11.420 So if the House passes what the Senate passed,

00:17:14.580 that'll be the end of the process

00:17:15.980 and the president will sign it.

00:17:18.120 The second thing they can do

00:17:19.880 is they can say,

00:17:21.180 okay, we passed a bill.

00:17:24.260 The Senate passed a different bill.

00:17:26.540 We need to work out the differences between them.

00:17:29.080 And that's called going to conference.

00:17:31.440 And the House could insist we go to conference.

00:17:33.660 I don't know which one they're going to do.

00:17:35.500 There are some real differences

00:17:36.880 in the Senate right now.

00:17:38.080 They're in the House right now.

00:17:39.080 They're having fights.

00:17:39.800 There's some aspects of the Senate bill

00:17:42.020 that are really good.

00:17:42.840 There's some aspects of the Senate bill

00:17:44.220 that are not great.

00:17:46.160 And so it's going to be a question

00:17:48.860 of what can get 218 votes in the House.

00:17:51.460 I know the speaker wants, if he can,

00:17:54.740 to take up and pass the Senate bill

00:17:56.860 and just send it to the president.

00:17:58.220 That's what the president wants also.

00:17:59.860 So that may happen.

00:18:01.560 If that doesn't happen,

00:18:03.640 then we'll go to conference.

00:18:04.820 And I think conference would take

00:18:06.280 the month of July

00:18:07.680 for us to work out the differences.

00:18:09.080 And my guess is we would pass the final bill

00:18:12.100 at the end of July, right before August.

00:18:16.040 So this is one of those big moments

00:18:18.380 that I think we should all enjoy.

00:18:21.540 Elections have consequences.

00:18:23.300 This time it was for conservative values

00:18:26.020 and for kids to have a better future

00:18:28.560 in education or savings accounts

00:18:30.560 and for tax cuts

00:18:32.260 so that Americans that work hard

00:18:33.800 can keep more of their own money.

00:18:35.860 On a scale of 1 to 10

00:18:37.600 and nothing's perfect,

00:18:39.200 how proud of you are you with this bill?

00:18:42.780 There's a lot of people that are saying,

00:18:44.100 well, there's this, there's that,

00:18:45.160 or there's this.

00:18:45.760 Look, yeah, there were some compromises,

00:18:47.280 no doubt, that had to be made.

00:18:48.900 You got a tight, you know,

00:18:50.720 a very, very slim majority

00:18:52.840 that you're dealing with here.

00:18:54.300 But overall, how happy are you

00:18:56.360 with what the American people

00:18:57.540 are now getting?

00:18:58.080 I think there are many

00:19:00.260 very, very good things in this bill.

00:19:02.980 I wish we cut spending significantly more.

00:19:05.460 I was fighting hard

00:19:06.420 to cut spending significantly more.

00:19:08.040 I went to President Trump

00:19:09.120 with $3 trillion of spending cuts we could do.

00:19:12.520 I was urging my colleagues.

00:19:14.340 I prevailed in some of those arguments,

00:19:16.120 but not all of them.

00:19:17.640 I wish we'd shown more fiscal restraint.

00:19:20.400 That would have made me much happier.

00:19:22.460 Look, at 6 a.m. on Tuesday,

00:19:24.940 we were near the end of the amendments.

00:19:28.280 And the question was,

00:19:29.300 could we get to 50 Republicans?

00:19:31.160 There are 53 in the Senate.

00:19:34.720 Now, Susan Collins was a no.

00:19:38.580 She is the most liberal of the Republicans.

00:19:41.120 She did not like some of the reforms on Medicaid.

00:19:44.300 The Democrats in the press are saying,

00:19:45.940 we slashed Medicaid.

00:19:47.280 That is a lie.

00:19:48.220 We actually are spending more on Medicaid

00:19:50.560 every single year.

00:19:52.260 What we did was slightly decrease

00:19:54.000 the rate of growth of Medicaid in the future.

00:19:56.760 And in particular,

00:19:58.220 we increased efforts to fight waste, fraud, and abuse

00:20:02.720 and to remove people from the Medicaid rolls

00:20:04.880 who don't qualify.

00:20:06.540 And we also put in place a work requirement,

00:20:09.700 which is really important

00:20:11.060 and I think actually benefits people.

00:20:13.340 If you look at the history of work requirements

00:20:15.300 for federal welfare benefits,

00:20:17.320 it ends up helping the recipients

00:20:19.660 by getting them back into the workforce,

00:20:22.360 which is ultimately much better

00:20:23.880 for them and their families.

00:20:25.120 So, so, but, but anyway,

00:20:28.580 Susan Collins did not like the reductions

00:20:31.220 in spending on that side.

00:20:32.460 So she voted no.

00:20:34.420 Tom Tillis,

00:20:36.240 a Republican from,

00:20:37.840 from North Carolina,

00:20:38.940 also did not like the Medicaid changes.

00:20:41.060 And so he voted no.

00:20:42.100 And so with 53 Republicans,

00:20:46.400 we could only lose three.

00:20:48.140 The two other votes that were in play

00:20:50.560 were Lisa Murkowski and Rand Paul.

00:20:55.400 And they were both between 6 a.m. and noon.

00:21:00.840 Nobody knew which one,

00:21:05.120 which one we would get if either.

00:21:09.580 But if we didn't get one of them,

00:21:11.240 this bill was going down.

00:21:12.540 Because if four senators voted against it,

00:21:15.120 four Republicans,

00:21:16.120 we were at 49 and it failed.

00:21:19.040 So the consequence of which road we went down

00:21:22.100 was really consequential.

00:21:24.060 Because Lisa, after Susan,

00:21:26.580 is the most liberal to moderate Republican

00:21:28.640 in the conference.

00:21:30.540 And so Lisa was bargaining

00:21:32.200 for a bunch more spending.

00:21:34.220 She wanted a ton of spending,

00:21:35.920 particularly in Alaska.

00:21:37.520 And that was the price of her vote.

00:21:39.260 And she was going back and forth.

00:21:40.820 Rand, on the other hand,

00:21:42.780 Rand was always going to be no,

00:21:44.220 always going to be a no.

00:21:45.280 And Rand said at the end,

00:21:47.480 he would be a yes.

00:21:49.460 If the debt ceiling was not extended,

00:21:51.820 we extend the debt ceiling

00:21:53.180 throughout President Trump's term

00:21:54.780 in this bill.

00:21:56.080 That was a very high priority

00:21:57.540 for President Trump.

00:21:59.300 Rand said he would vote yes

00:22:01.220 if we shortened the extension

00:22:03.580 of the debt ceiling to September 30th.

00:22:05.700 So we just did a couple of months

00:22:07.280 of the debt ceiling.

00:22:08.580 Now, the consequence of that would mean

00:22:10.740 we'd have to come back in September 30th

00:22:12.600 and address the debt ceiling again.

00:22:14.960 And that would mean

00:22:15.900 we'd probably have to negotiate

00:22:17.320 with the Democrats

00:22:17.980 and make a lousy deal

00:22:19.780 with Chuck Schumer.

00:22:21.560 But between 6 a.m. and noon,

00:22:24.100 none of us knew

00:22:24.880 which direction they were going to go.

00:22:27.520 Were they going to go

00:22:28.300 the direction of Lisa Murkowski

00:22:31.180 or were they going to go

00:22:31.840 the direction of Rand Paul?

00:22:33.500 At the end of the day,

00:22:34.740 Lisa is the one who got to yes,

00:22:36.580 but it was literally up

00:22:38.100 until the moment she cast her vote.

00:22:39.740 We didn't know for sure.

00:22:40.640 And she ended up increasing

00:22:45.540 the rural hospital fund

00:22:47.160 by $50 billion.

00:22:49.300 She ended up dropping

00:22:51.320 the Medicaid penalty

00:22:53.520 for states that are giving Medicaid

00:22:57.980 to illegal immigrants.

00:22:59.060 she ended up delaying

00:23:03.260 the work requirements

00:23:04.480 for food stamps for Alaska.

00:23:08.580 And the cost of that

00:23:09.600 was billions and billions of dollars.

00:23:12.300 Interestingly,

00:23:13.600 if Rand had said yes

00:23:15.920 instead of Lisa, 0.92

00:23:17.280 we would have ended up

00:23:19.000 spending much less.

00:23:20.800 But the consequence of Rand

00:23:22.860 being a no

00:23:23.740 is that it drove,

00:23:26.200 it made Lisa the swing vote 0.99

00:23:28.200 and the price of her vote 0.51

00:23:29.720 was billions

00:23:32.540 and probably hundreds

00:23:33.660 of billions more in spending.

00:23:36.480 And so,

00:23:37.820 you know,

00:23:38.240 I mean,

00:23:39.680 that's where votes

00:23:41.040 have consequences.

00:23:42.560 As before,

00:23:43.700 if you want to hear

00:23:44.380 the rest of this conversation

00:23:45.620 on this topic,

00:23:46.880 you can go back

00:23:47.600 and download the podcast

00:23:48.920 from earlier this week

00:23:49.760 to hear the entire thing.

00:23:51.020 Canadian women

00:23:52.640 are looking for more.

00:23:54.020 More out of themselves,

00:23:55.040 their businesses,

00:23:55.980 their elected leaders,

00:23:56.940 and the world around them.

00:23:58.160 And that's why we're thrilled

00:23:59.100 to introduce

00:23:59.760 the Honest Talk podcast.

00:24:01.800 I'm Jennifer Stewart.

00:24:03.060 And I'm Catherine Clark.

00:24:04.300 And in this podcast,

00:24:05.440 we interview Canada's

00:24:06.400 most inspiring women.

00:24:08.040 Entrepreneurs,

00:24:08.740 artists,

00:24:09.420 athletes,

00:24:10.020 politicians,

00:24:10.720 and newsmakers,

00:24:11.600 all at different stages

00:24:12.640 of their journey.

00:24:13.780 So,

00:24:14.140 if you're looking to connect,

00:24:15.600 then we hope you'll join us.

00:24:17.000 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast

00:24:18.400 on iHeart Radio

00:24:19.340 or wherever you listen

00:24:20.360 to your podcasts.

00:24:22.880 I want to get back

00:24:23.960 to the big story

00:24:25.160 number three of the week

00:24:26.100 you may have missed.

00:24:28.000 You're taking a break

00:24:29.220 with a fam hanging out.

00:24:30.460 Maybe you're wanting

00:24:30.960 to watch a movie.

00:24:32.060 We have got an epic list

00:24:33.660 we're going through right now.

00:24:34.820 We thought we'd take

00:24:35.500 a little break

00:24:36.120 from all the politics

00:24:37.200 and talk about a list

00:24:39.660 that came out of apparently

00:24:40.700 like the best movies

00:24:41.560 of all time.

00:24:42.240 All these actors

00:24:43.040 and Hollywood elitists

00:24:44.100 voted on it.

00:24:44.900 New York Times put it together.

00:24:46.920 The list is incredibly sad.

00:24:49.260 A lot of it anti-American,

00:24:51.020 anti-family.

00:24:52.360 And so,

00:24:52.640 we're adding some great movies

00:24:53.760 to your list.

00:24:54.420 If you don't know this

00:24:55.280 about Senator Cruz,

00:24:56.620 huge movie guy.

00:24:58.020 And you love still going

00:24:59.260 to the big screen,

00:25:00.300 seeing them when they come out.

00:25:02.040 I think that's,

00:25:02.640 I love doing that as well.

00:25:03.780 I think it's a blast.

00:25:04.820 So,

00:25:05.140 let's get back to this list

00:25:06.480 of some of the incredible

00:25:07.300 movies out there.

00:25:08.580 All right.

00:25:09.160 So,

00:25:09.360 we've done 20.

00:25:10.220 We have 10 more to do

00:25:11.540 of movies that came out

00:25:13.260 in the 21st century.

00:25:14.360 In 2016,

00:25:16.280 two movies in particular.

00:25:17.360 Number one,

00:25:18.000 Hidden Figures.

00:25:18.880 Great movie.

00:25:19.920 Terrific movie.

00:25:20.900 I took my wife,

00:25:22.400 my daughters,

00:25:22.980 my mom to see.

00:25:24.460 True story

00:25:25.380 of the African-American

00:25:26.700 women mathematician 0.96

00:25:27.680 who were foundational

00:25:29.560 to NASA going to the moon.

00:25:31.460 It's an amazing story.

00:25:33.460 And,

00:25:33.540 Ben,

00:25:34.380 as you know,

00:25:34.880 my mom was also

00:25:36.260 a mathematician

00:25:36.880 at the dawn

00:25:37.660 of the computer age.

00:25:38.680 Hidden Figures begins

00:25:39.760 with Sputnik being launched

00:25:41.900 and the space race

00:25:42.700 being started.

00:25:44.200 my mom in the 1950s

00:25:46.720 worked at the Smithsonian.

00:25:48.160 One of her first projects

00:25:49.200 was helping to compute

00:25:50.580 the orbit of Sputnik.

00:25:53.140 And,

00:25:53.300 and actually,

00:25:54.240 in honor of this movie,

00:25:55.480 I introduced legislation

00:25:57.000 that resulted in

00:25:58.180 the street

00:25:59.280 where the NASA headquarters

00:26:00.400 is in D.C.

00:26:01.760 being changed

00:26:02.920 to Hidden Figures Way

00:26:04.280 to honor those

00:26:05.320 African-American women

00:26:06.340 mathematicians

00:26:07.400 who were foundational

00:26:09.780 in our going to the moon.

00:26:11.300 It's not on Hollywood's list either,

00:26:13.480 but it's a great movie

00:26:14.260 and it's a fabulous family movie.

00:26:16.260 Another great family movie,

00:26:18.040 La La Land.

00:26:18.760 Same,

00:26:19.100 same year.

00:26:19.800 It's a musical.

00:26:20.640 It's fun.

00:26:21.240 It's light.

00:26:22.220 It's about Hollywood.

00:26:23.760 It,

00:26:23.860 it is,

00:26:24.800 it's a terrific movie

00:26:26.180 and yet it's nowhere

00:26:26.920 on their list.

00:26:28.740 2017.

00:26:29.620 2017,

00:26:30.580 a great movie,

00:26:31.620 The Darkest Hour.

00:26:33.640 Winston Churchill

00:26:34.700 in the middle of World War II.

00:26:36.700 Powerful.

00:26:37.280 Gary Oldham

00:26:37.840 does a terrific portrayal

00:26:39.680 of Churchill.

00:26:40.380 Highly recommended.

00:26:42.280 2018,

00:26:43.640 Black Panther.

00:26:44.420 Black Panther was a terrific movie.

00:26:46.160 It's a comic book movie,

00:26:47.080 but there's a reason

00:26:47.520 so many people go,

00:26:48.300 go like,

00:26:48.820 go see them

00:26:49.520 because they're really good.

00:26:52.300 2019,

00:26:53.940 Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

00:26:55.480 Another Quentin Tarantino.

00:26:56.900 I thought it was terrific.

00:26:58.300 Loved it.

00:26:59.460 Brad Pitt was in it as well.

00:27:00.800 Brad Pitt,

00:27:01.220 when Tarantino is directing him,

00:27:03.560 is really,

00:27:04.860 really good.

00:27:06.420 You then get on to 2022.

00:27:09.160 Top Gun Maverick.

00:27:10.220 Just a great,

00:27:11.900 fun movie,

00:27:13.220 action film.

00:27:14.380 Fun to go to the theater

00:27:15.440 and see the jets rocketing

00:27:17.000 through the sky

00:27:17.780 fighting the bad guys.

00:27:19.260 I will note that

00:27:20.380 no Hollywood theater

00:27:22.140 will now make

00:27:22.980 communist China

00:27:23.860 the bad guys

00:27:24.520 because they all want to sell

00:27:25.400 movies in China.

00:27:26.860 So the bad guys

00:27:28.040 are always some

00:27:29.180 made up

00:27:29.700 fictional place.

00:27:31.640 on to 2023.

00:27:34.800 Two movies in 2023

00:27:36.600 on the list.

00:27:37.680 Oppenheimer.

00:27:38.260 Oppenheimer was terrific.

00:27:39.760 True story.

00:27:41.420 Powerful.

00:27:42.140 Interesting.

00:27:42.900 Really well done.

00:27:44.700 Same year,

00:27:45.600 Killers of the Flower Moon.

00:27:46.780 Another true story.

00:27:48.840 Really powerful.

00:27:50.080 Well done.

00:27:51.640 All right.

00:27:52.200 Full disclosure,

00:27:52.920 I missed that movie

00:27:53.960 apparently when it came out.

00:27:55.160 What's it about?

00:27:55.860 Because now I'm interested.

00:27:57.660 So Martin Scorsese did it

00:27:59.300 and it's based on

00:28:00.380 a true story.

00:28:01.300 So it's set in Oklahoma

00:28:02.180 in the 1920s

00:28:03.500 and it focuses on

00:28:04.840 a series of murders

00:28:06.360 of Osage Indians

00:28:08.720 after oil is discovered

00:28:10.980 on their tribal lands

00:28:12.060 and it's got

00:28:13.160 a fabulous cast.

00:28:15.820 Leonardo DiCaprio's in it.

00:28:17.140 Robert De Niro is in it.

00:28:18.960 And look,

00:28:19.900 it's brutal.

00:28:20.720 It doesn't paint

00:28:21.620 a pretty insanitized

00:28:24.080 picture of history

00:28:25.420 but it is

00:28:26.240 our history

00:28:27.300 has moments

00:28:28.020 of brutality,

00:28:29.420 moments of

00:28:30.040 evil and oppression

00:28:31.880 and Scorsese

00:28:33.080 can tell a story

00:28:34.720 as well as

00:28:35.880 anyone in the business.

00:28:38.020 Awesome.

00:28:38.640 I'm going to have to

00:28:39.100 grab that movie

00:28:39.680 and check it out.

00:28:40.340 Keep going.

00:28:41.480 Well,

00:28:42.040 that takes us to 28

00:28:43.300 and for the last two

00:28:45.200 I figured,

00:28:46.340 all right,

00:28:47.360 who ought to decide

00:28:48.800 what are really good movies

00:28:50.660 and I came up

00:28:51.660 with a crazy idea.

00:28:52.560 How about

00:28:53.000 the ticket buyers?

00:28:54.560 And so I just pulled

00:28:56.840 what are the top 10

00:28:58.100 highest grossing films

00:28:59.340 from 2000 to 2025.

00:29:02.060 Any idea what the

00:29:03.100 number one film

00:29:03.860 of the last 25 years

00:29:05.260 has been in terms

00:29:06.060 of box office dollars?

00:29:08.420 And that's a hard one.

00:29:09.800 I have no clue.

00:29:10.580 Go for it.

00:29:11.020 I'm ready.

00:29:11.340 So number one

00:29:12.920 is Avatar 2009

00:29:14.620 and it brought in

00:29:16.860 $2.9 billion.

00:29:19.600 And Avatar,

00:29:20.580 I'm going to put Avatar

00:29:21.180 on my list

00:29:21.620 because it's a great film.

00:29:22.840 It really was novel

00:29:23.860 how it sort of stretched

00:29:25.160 but brought you

00:29:26.940 into an entirely

00:29:28.060 different world

00:29:29.080 and the effects

00:29:31.240 were fantastic.

00:29:32.320 It was a well done story.

00:29:33.740 The number two

00:29:34.580 grossing film

00:29:35.780 of the last 25 years

00:29:37.560 was Avengers Endgame

00:29:39.460 and that brought in

00:29:40.600 $2.8 billion.

00:29:42.740 I'm going to include

00:29:43.740 both of those

00:29:44.380 as the final two

00:29:45.400 on my list.

00:29:46.000 They're the top two

00:29:46.600 grossing films.

00:29:47.520 They're fantastic.

00:29:48.960 I like most comic book

00:29:50.720 movies but I do think

00:29:52.520 Avengers Endgame

00:29:53.480 was really,

00:29:54.560 really good.

00:29:56.060 And it says something.

00:29:57.380 If you look at the list

00:29:58.420 of top 10,

00:30:00.340 none of the top 10

00:30:01.480 grossing films

00:30:02.320 are on Hollywood's list.

00:30:04.420 You have number three

00:30:05.780 is Avatar The Way of the Water.

00:30:07.080 Number four is

00:30:07.600 Star Wars Episode 7,

00:30:09.580 The Force Awakens.

00:30:10.440 Number five is

00:30:11.060 Avengers Affinity War.

00:30:12.220 Number six is

00:30:12.840 Spider-Man No Way Home

00:30:14.340 which I thought was

00:30:15.240 the best of the

00:30:15.840 Spider-Man movies.

00:30:17.320 Number seven was

00:30:18.580 Nijia 2.

00:30:19.760 I don't know that movie.

00:30:21.020 Maybe Chinese. 0.98

00:30:22.340 I just don't know

00:30:23.240 that movie.

00:30:24.440 Number eight was

00:30:25.680 Inside Out 2.

00:30:27.220 Number nine was

00:30:28.120 Jurassic World.

00:30:29.000 And number 10 was

00:30:29.600 The Lion King in 2019.

00:30:30.820 It says something

00:30:33.000 when you have a product

00:30:34.280 and the people

00:30:36.400 making the product

00:30:37.560 don't like the product

00:30:39.360 that people like

00:30:41.000 and are buying

00:30:41.680 there's a real

00:30:42.380 disconnect there.

00:30:44.440 You know,

00:30:45.000 you go back to that

00:30:45.880 New York Times list.

00:30:47.060 Most of the movies

00:30:48.100 on the list

00:30:48.780 nobody has seen

00:30:50.580 and nobody wants

00:30:51.860 to see.

00:30:53.320 And that really is sad.

00:30:55.020 There used to be

00:30:55.680 a time

00:30:56.260 look,

00:30:57.500 what's fun about

00:30:58.440 going to the movies

00:30:59.220 you'll notice themes

00:31:00.500 so I like

00:31:02.040 true stories.

00:31:03.180 I like war movies.

00:31:05.040 I like gangster movies

00:31:06.480 things like

00:31:06.960 Godfather and Scarface.

00:31:09.500 I like westerns.

00:31:11.260 I like comedies.

00:31:13.040 I like some musicals

00:31:14.920 but I like a story.

00:31:17.900 When I go to the movies

00:31:19.840 I want to tell me a story.

00:31:22.120 It can be

00:31:22.660 a sad story.

00:31:24.300 It can be a funny story.

00:31:25.560 It can bring me

00:31:26.200 in an adventure.

00:31:27.360 You know,

00:31:28.080 classic movies

00:31:28.980 I grew up with

00:31:29.780 like Indiana Jones

00:31:30.960 like

00:31:31.220 it can be

00:31:33.200 you know

00:31:33.560 Star Wars

00:31:34.400 the whole Star Wars

00:31:35.360 series

00:31:36.040 the hero's journey

00:31:38.300 actually Ben

00:31:39.000 I'm going to tell you

00:31:39.420 something really funny.

00:31:41.900 Really good buddy of mine

00:31:43.540 that I went to high school with

00:31:45.880 you bet him

00:31:47.080 Joel's his name

00:31:48.420 great friend of mine

00:31:49.280 came

00:31:50.600 came to

00:31:51.380 our place in D.C.

00:31:53.520 last weekend

00:31:54.240 he and his family

00:31:54.920 were in town

00:31:55.480 and he said

00:31:55.800 hey can I crash

00:31:56.420 at your place

00:31:56.860 I said sure

00:31:57.440 and he and I

00:31:59.380 have gone to a lot

00:32:00.460 of movies together

00:32:01.100 and he's a huge

00:32:01.840 Star Wars buff

00:32:02.620 and so he went

00:32:04.100 to the Star Wars

00:32:05.740 I guess museum

00:32:07.260 and when I get back

00:32:09.300 to my D.C. apartment

00:32:10.440 he's replaced my sheets

00:32:13.320 with Star Wars sheets

00:32:14.740 and a Star Wars comforter

00:32:16.860 and Star Wars

00:32:17.740 pillowcases

00:32:18.880 and it looks like

00:32:20.100 a nine year old

00:32:20.760 boy's room

00:32:21.380 and I just

00:32:21.860 cracked up laughing

00:32:23.580 and then actually

00:32:25.240 it was right after

00:32:25.960 I had the Tucker Carlson

00:32:27.020 interview

00:32:27.400 that was a lot

00:32:28.320 of fireworks

00:32:28.820 so he bought

00:32:30.120 Tucker Carlson's book

00:32:31.180 and he rested it

00:32:32.220 on the pillowcase

00:32:32.840 so I was doubled

00:32:34.080 over laughing

00:32:34.940 when I walked in

00:32:35.780 walked in Monday morning

00:32:37.200 to the apartment

00:32:37.820 and saw my bedroom

00:32:39.160 as always

00:32:40.500 thank you for listening

00:32:41.980 to Verdict

00:32:42.800 with Senator Ted Cruz

00:32:43.860 Ben Ferguson

00:32:44.600 with you

00:32:44.880 don't forget to

00:32:45.560 download my podcast

00:32:46.620 and you can listen

00:32:47.360 to my podcast

00:32:48.000 every other day

00:32:48.540 you're not listening

00:32:49.120 to Verdict

00:32:49.480 or each day

00:32:50.300 when you listen

00:32:50.700 to Verdict

00:32:50.980 afterwards

00:32:51.560 I'd love to have you

00:32:52.900 as a listener

00:32:53.400 to again

00:32:54.280 the Ben Ferguson podcast

00:32:55.460 and we will see you

00:32:56.400 back here

00:32:57.020 on Monday morning

00:32:58.140 this is an iHeart podcast

00:32:59.840 guaranteed human

Verdict with Ted Cruz - July 05, 2025

Trump WINS at SCOTUS, Reshaping the Learning Landscape & What Moviegoers Love and Critics Ignore Week In Review

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