Senator Cruz Identifies the Wrong Vehicle, but Pushes the Right Strategy to Restrain Spending

January 8, 2013 by Dan Mitchell

Less than one week ago, I identified three potential vehicles for some long-overdue fiscal reforms to restrain the burden of government spending.

In that post, I suggested that the “continuing resolution” was the best vehicle since lawmakers obviously would have to consider legislation to provide funding for the rest of the 2013 fiscal year.

The debt limit, by contrast, creates too many opportunities for demagoguery. Geithner and Bernanke have already demonstrated, for instance, that they’re willing to prevaricate and scare financial markets.

It’s much smarter to pick a fight on the “CR” since there not even a make-believe risk of default. Instead, the only thing that happens is that the “non-essential” parts of the federal government are shut down.

So I’m delighted to see that Ted Cruz, the new Senator from Texas, understands that the shutdown fight in 1995 led to very good results. I wrote a piece for National Review making the same point, so I’m delighted to hear someone else singing from the same sheet of music. Pay close attention at the 3:15 mark of this video.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz on the Deficit, Gun Rights, Immigration

My only quibble is that he mentions the debt limit as the vehicle for the fight, when he should have mentioned the CR.

But I’m nit-picking. Cruz seems to get it. He puts the focus on the disease of too much government rather than fixating on the symptom of too much red ink.

He also understands that high tax rates discourage productive behavior, so he’s obviously not a fan of the President’s class-warfare approach.

Last but not least, you’ll also see he gave a very strong response on protecting the 2nd Amendment immediately following his discussion of fiscal policy.

Seems like there’s a chance he could be a second Rand Paul.