Senator Ted Cruz here, what questions do you have for me? (Answering your questions on Feb 26th!)

Senator, keep them coming. I know you have a published plan, but many that are opposed to anything conservative will not read it. Like a baby, they have to be spoon fed, again and again and again.

Thank you, Senator Ted Cruz! I appreciate the detailed response.

Senator Ted Cruz - With a tax plan that will cost the government 8.6 trillion over a decade, promises to rebuild the military and an annual deficit of roughly 500 Billion a year. How will your 5 for Freedom cost cutting measures that have us 500 Billion over 10 years make a difference?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/02/16/cruz-tax-plan-would-cost-8-6-trillion-second-only-to-trump/

His plan would help in reducing the size and scope of government, mark. Smaller governments need less cash and who really reads the comPost any way except liberals who read liberal slant.

2) Liberals sources of information are ever present. Conservatives are regularly exposed to the liberal viewpoint whether they want to be or not. That's not necessarily so for liberals. Imagine the average day for liberals. They get up and read their local newspaper. It has a liberal viewpoint. They take their kids to school, where the teachers are liberal. Then they go to work, listen to NPR which has a liberal viewpoint on the way home, and then turn on the nightly news which also skews leftward. From there, they turn on TV and watch shows created by liberals that lean to the left, if they have any political viewpoint at all. Unless liberals actively seek out conservative viewpoints, which is unlikely, the only conservative arguments they're probably going to hear are going to be through the heavily distorted, poorly translated, deeply skeptical lens of other liberals.

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I think part of the support for Trump is that so many are disappointed on the corruptions and cronyism in Washington. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are the best that the Democrats have to offer? If that is your best, then you need to go away. Trump at least has accomplished something his life. He was not just given those billions of dollars. It is the most interesting election cycle in my life but maybe it will cause the cleaning up of both parties?

MSG Brad Sand - The issue with the support for Trump, is that he has not one actual policy proposal. He plays on the anger against the government that built under the frustration with the Obama Administration, by using generalized statements that target that anger. He throws out statements of very popular ideas that are pretty much impossible to accomplish. If I had one question I could ask Trump it would be HOW. How does he plan to get any full-deportation plan through Congress? How does he plan to "Make America Great Again"? Supposing you get a full-deportation plan through Congress, how do you plan to find 11 million illegal immigrants to deport them? What are you going to do with people who have no recorded existence in another country? How are you going to "get Mexico" to pay for building a wall.

Your first point regarding corruption and cronyism in Washington is my next point. Why in the heck would anyone who is sick of corruption and cronyism in Washington vote for the multi-billionaire who made a living off buying and selling political favors and expect that he wouldn't do the same as President? I apparently have a completely different interpretation of what it means to be a politician than everyone else, because what I consider "politicians" are greedy, lying, cheating, self-centered people who have used money and connections to work the system to their favor while screwing over the country. There is one non-politician in the race, and it certainly isn't Donald Trump.

Lastly, I would point out the fact that whatever he says, however many times he changes his mind, it gets ignored by his supporters, which is why I consider it nothing more than celebrity worship. For instance, if Ted Cruz stated, "I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters" it would be the end of his campaign. If Marco Rubio backed Common Core and Planned Parenthood funding, it would be the end of his campaign. If Ben Carson had admitted to voting for Obama and financially supporting Hillary Clinton, it would be the end of his campaign. If John Kasich had told a woman she "would look better on her knees" it would be the end of his campaign. But yet, the Apprentice star, has done all of the above, and non of his supporters care. Why? Because he is playing them all like puppets on a string and telling them what they want to hear. He tapped into their frustration and anger with government and he's manipulating them without even having to work at it.

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I can only assume your one non-politician is Dr. Carson?

I don't disagree that he is a lacking a lot of detail on most of his plans...but what politician isn't? Obamacare was only passed so fast because they knew it would not survive if people looked at the details. Yes, he is a hard liner on the border BUT I think if we could at least start moving at all, we would be in a much better place than just talking about it (why I liked...still like...Carly Fiorina).

Here is one of the things I do like about Trump, he is totally funding his own campaign. He is not letting himself be bought the way he has bought the Cruz, Rubio, Kasich, Bush, Clinton and Sanders of the World. Until his actions to not match with his words...like a Cruz...I will take him at his word. If he says he will oppose big banking and then it turns out that he is taking million dollar loans and not reporting it...well then I am totally in with you.

I am not Trump supporter. I would support him before Clinton or Sanders, but I would support any of the GOP candidates before those two EXCEPT Cruz. I like Dr. Carson, my fear with him is that he would get eaten alive in Washington, the whole time thinking that the people there would follow him because it was the right thing to do for America and they would not because it was not the easiest thing for them to increase their power. I really like when I hear Rubio speaking unscripted, especially about his faith. My fear is that he might be too willing to compromise with Democrats because he would also try to do what is right...my opinion. Kasich might not be bad, but I just cannot watch him speak because I keep thinking a martial arts movie is going to break out with his karate chop gesturing...sorry but it is the truth.

MSG Brad Sand - At this point in the race there really is no one left for me to support except Dr. Carson. I will vote for whoever gets the nomination except Trump, because I know in my gut, that Trump is not in this race for anyone but himself. He has never done anything ever, that I can see for anyone else. As for him totally self-funding his campaign, that in itself isn't true. It's marginally accurate at best, because he is self-funding, but according to FEC disclosures his campaign has raised over $25M and only $17M was self-funded. As for Cruz, he's near the bottom of my list for many reasons. One, his firing of Rick Tyler should have come immediately following the Iowa caucuses. Two, Jeff Roe should have gone with him. He's been running a very deceptive, dirty campaign and it disgusts me. However, he at least climbed the ladder to being back on my 'if I have to' list with finally getting rid of that puke Rick Tyler. I mean really, anyone who gets on TV and excuses scum-bucket politicking as "not illegal"... no thanks. Rubio is receiving well over half of his campaign funds in sums over $2000, in other words lobbyists and special interests. Kasich is far too left for me on too many important policies, although I would probably say he's my second choice at this point. Trump simply is not conservative. There is very few general things he's said where he could be classified conservative, but pro-common core, pro funding planned parenthood, pro progressive taxation system, essentially all of the "single issues" that single issues vote on, he's mid-far left. What I meant about not having thorough policy, I guess I should have said he has no policy. Dr. Carson has detailed plans on his website of nearly every policy proposal he's mentioned - far more than the others. Trumps most thorough policy proposal is "we'll build a wall, mexico will pay for it, and it'll be big and we'll win".

As for Dr. Carson, I really think that people underestimate him. He's got a backbone, I have seen it. People misunderstand his refusal to play into the hands of the democrats by blasting other Republicans and playing dirty politics as a weakness. I see it as a strength. He uses intellect over power-politics, which is often more successful in the long run. The thing with corruption is it is easy to expose it, and it is easy to get policy goals accomplished when you aren't a part of it. For example, one of his policies is to get term limits on Congress. Do you ever think that bill would hit the floor of the Senate if a Senator introduced it? No. If the president includes it in his domestic policy and puts it on their desk they have no choice but to vote on it. Essentially, you've just handed them all a termination notice and told them they can choose to vote yes, taking the high ground (and their successors with them) or they can vote no, protecting their successors, demolishing their own reputation and losing their reelection anyway.

You mean like the "federal" land that actually belongs to the citizens?

You get an up vote, but I hope that was a rhetorical question and you know the answer.

This one is tricky. Despite all our wars, only 5 have been specifically declared (War of 1812, the Spanish-American War, the Mexican-American War, WWI, & WWII). From a foreign policy perspective, if you declare war on Daesh (ISIS), you're also somewhat legitimizing them as a nation-state. Authorizations for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) serve the same function, it's just that some members of the public get confused by the terminology and implications and thus use terms like "illegal war" when we enter armed conflict. However, there are no procedures outlined by the Constitution for declaring war other than giving that power to Congress, and he would need to receive the consent of Congress.
The War Powers Act of 1973 gives the President 90 days to obtain Congressional approval for the use of military forces provided that troops are equipped for combat in an area where they there are expected to be hostilities, which is curious since the presence of Marine Air-Ground Task Forces like MEUs and MEBs or even MEFs as well as the Army Division Ready Brigades can be quicky deployed against a large spectrum of enemies. Given that Desert Storm was over in 100 hours and the 2003 Invasion lasted only 42 days, so a conflict could end (sans stability operations) before the vote is even required. It's an interesting, and some would say scary, premise.

I don't think Trump is capable of not name calling.

Ya think? He always has a lame excuse and blames it on the other person, PO1 Kerry French. He's never wrong, except wanting to be POTUS. That's a joke.