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

As a "Constitutionalist," how do you reconcile your belief in a large and globally active "standing Army" with the Founding Father's wariness of exactly such an institution? What do you see as the role of the American military in the world and in society?

From my spouse, a LEO:
As president, would you expand hate crimes to include law enforcement and emergency services personnel? If so, how; if not, why not?

Senator Ted Cruz

Sir, please explain to me how as a Conservative and expert on the Constitutional, you feel you can get around Section 1 of Article Two clause 5 of the United States Constitution?

‘No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.’

‘Citizen’ is mentioned twenty one times in the Constitution and Amendments, (Ten in the Constitution itself and eleven times in Amendments) but a natural born citizen is only referenced once? I think we all can, or should, agree that to represent ‘We the People’ in this Republic, one must at least be a citizen of the United States. Additionally, in all representative positions, (Representative, Senator and President) one must have reached a certain age, Representatives and Senators must also be resident of the state they represent. The President does have slightly different wording in their eligibility, instead of being a certain number of Years a Citizen of the United States; the President must be ‘fourteen Years a Resident’? The framers of the Constitution, having fought and bled founding our Nation realized that one needed to be either here at our Nation’s founding (at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution) or born within the United States of America (natural born) after that date. This was done in an attempt to stop, or at least limit, foreign influences in the highest office of this great Nation. England had allowed a foreign-born head of state, and this had been an unhappy experience for many who had immigrated to the United States and was a lesson they had learned from their own history. So the concept of ‘natural born’ came directly from the laws and codes of the Empire they had just separated from. What was the concept that they adopted for the good of our Republic?

I think all scholars and laymen studying the issue will agree, the main authority and source for the meaning of "natural born" that the documents writers were looking to was William Blackstone (10 July 1723 – 14 February 1780), and specifically his Commentaries on the Laws of England (and particularly the second volume)

St. George Tucker (July 10, 1752 – November 10, 1827) one of the leading jurist of the period and an editor and expert on Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England wrote: ‘Persons naturalized according to these acts, are entitled to all the rights of natural born citizens, except, first, that they cannot be elected as representatives in congress until seven years, thereafter. Secondly, nor can they be elected senators of the United States, until nine years thereafter. Thirdly, they are forever incapable of being chosen to the office of president of the United States. Persons naturalized before the adoption of the constitution, it is presumed, have all the capacities of natural born citizens.’ Drawing a distinction between ‘naturalized’ and ‘natural’ and stating that ONE COULD BE NATURALIZED AND RUN FOR ANY OFFICE BUT PRESIDENT, BUT TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT ONE MUST BE BORN INSIDE THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA…or born and living here before June 21, 1788.

I understand that under our laws, you were a citizen at birth, BUT being born to parents legally residing in Canada, you were natural born in another sovereign nation and a subject of the Queen. Please explain to me and RP how one can have dual natural born status. While I would love to be able to support you for President, every soldier, sailor, airmen and Marine took an oath to defend Our Constitution and without a clearly explaining how Tucker, and others, are wrong, I will openly and loudly oppose your candidacy.

What's songs are playing in your IPod/Device while you travel?

Do you support the over haul of the Military Retirement, and if so what about changing the retirement of the politicians? I support their retirement but not its current level, if you do one term it should be a percentage of retirement just like the military, IE if you do 20 it is 50% if you do 30 it is 75% and it is capped to 75% so if this was to happen we could balance the budget.

The VA provides at least two valuable benefits to veterans: 1) The home loan program which has VA oversight but is essentially executed by private lending companies....AND WORKS QUITE WELL. 2) Medical care which has oversight AND execution by the government....AND DOES NOT WORK NEARLY AS WELL. Could you see advocating making the medical part work more like the home loan program...with VA oversight but civilian medical program execution?

Senator Cruz: In the news recently, there is much speculation on North Korea and their nuclear weapons. Their military strength is superb. How big of a threat do you see North Korea to the Untred States, and what action would you take to avoid any confrontation with North Korea.

The 1982 Uniformed Services Former Spouses Protection Act (USFSPA) provides states with the authority to treat non-disability military retirement pay as property and can divide it by up to 50 percent when married couples separate. Why are military members held to a different standard than the civilian counterparts when it comes to basically awarding "alimony for life"? Would you be in favor of eliminating this?

Good afternoon Senator. As a man of faith, and a Constitutional conservative, what would you say guides your governing philosophy most, and how would you handle any conflicts between your faith and the limitations placed on the federal government by the Constitution? (I ask this as both a fellow Christian and Constitutionalist)
Thank you for your time and service, and I wish you success in your campaign

There has been a great deal of attention on the "email issue" with Ms Clinton with recent reports finding that some of the information transmitted/received was Top Secret Special Compartmented Information (TS/SCI). Standard practice to be read into TS and especially SCI programs is to be "read on" and "read off" with the execution of associated documentation on how you will and did handle classified information. It is also normal practice to sign an agreement for a CI poly if there is any issue. Why hasn't someone just simple asked Ms Clinton and the DOS to disclose those documents and also for Ms Clinton to just take a CI Poly on this issue (as anyone else who has or had access would do - and routinely does) to clear up these questions? Seems handling this as one woudl for any other member of the Armed Forces or Government would clear this up tight away.