“These are dangerous, extreme, radical times,” Ted Cruz told the crowd today at the Family Research Council’s Values Voters Summit.
And in his demagogic stemwinder, Cruz proceeded to prove his own point, if not quite in the way he intended.
Here’s a look at five of the most outlandish ideas the senator proposed in his speech.
Fight Hillary by having her debate some nuns!
Referring to a lawsuit filed against the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate by a group of nuns called the Little Sisters of the Poor, Cruz said Hillary Clinton should face off with the nuns in a debate over religious liberty.
“We ought to invite Hillary Clinton to spend a day debating the Little Sisters of the Poor,” Cruz suggested.
“As for me, I’ll stand with the nuns,” Cruz added. (But presumably not these nuns.)
Birth control = “abortion-inducting drugs”!
Just before proposing that Hillary debate the group, Cruz said, “Right now, the federal government is suing the Little Sisters of the Poor to try to force Catholic nuns to pay for abortion-inducing drugs.”
Actually, the Little Sisters of the Poor sued the government – and not because they were being made to pay for birth control, but because they didn’t accept the Obama administration’s compromise whereby religious organizations could opt out of the contraception mandate by signing a form – ensuring that the organizations wouldn’t pay for birth control themselves, although insurance providers would.
Most striking was Cruz’s repeated description of contraception as “abortion inducing.” Medical experts have debunked that persistent right-wing claim.
Abolish the IRS!
Drawing a standing ovation from the crowd, Cruz laid out a key plank of his game plan to Take Our Country Back™: “We abolish the IRS!”
But about those dangerous, extreme, radical libruls.
Congress should repeal things they haven’t passed!
Running down his laundry list of promises of what conservatives could do if they took control of the Senate, Cruz vowed, “We stand for life, we stand for marriage, we stand for Israel,” Cruz said of which message wins best.
And this: “We repeal Common Core!” Congress never passed the education standards, which have been implemented at the state level.
“We repeal every word of Obamacare!”
Because the 55th time is the charm.
Watch Cruz's full speech here, via Mediaite:
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