Cruz ’92 proposes dissolution of IRS at presidential debate

U.S. Senator for Texas Ted Cruz ’92 proposed the abolishment of the Internal Revenue Service, Department of Energy, Department of Commerce and the Department of Housing and Urban Development in the fourth Republican presidential debate on Tuesday.

The eight current GOP frontrunners — including businessman Donald Trump, Ben Carson, U.S. Senator for Florida Marco Rubio, former Florida governor Jeb Bush, former tech executive Carly Fiorina, Cruz, Ohio Governor John Kasich and U.S. Senator for Kentucky Rand Paul — offered up their strategies for fostering economic prosperity in the U.S.

The debate took place in Milwaukee, Wis.

The discussion centered on taxes, job creation, minimum wage, illegal immigration, trade, healthcare and military spending.

“The Obama economy is a disaster, and the IMF is telling us this is a new normal,” Cruz said. “It doesn’t have to be.”

His policy was centered on tax reform, regulatory reform and sound money.

“I have rolled out a bold and simple flat tax: 10 percent for every American that would produce booming growth and 4.9 million new jobs within a decade,” Cruz said on his plans for tax reform.

He proposed a 16 percent flat tax for all corporations. His policy would be border adjustable, with exports exempt from the tax, but all imports subject to that same 16 percent, he said.

He called for “pulling back the armies of regulators that have descended like locusts on small businesses.”

In response to Paul’s assertion that you cannot be a conservative if you favor heavy military spending policies, Cruz said he favored a moderate approach. He proposed getting rid of subsidies on products such as sugar, then using the resulting savings to increase military expenditure.

“Every income group will see double-digit increases, from the very poorest to the very weakest, of at least 14 percent,” Cruz said on the expected impact of his economic reform agenda.

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Prior to the frontrunners’ debate, at the undercard GOP debate, New Jersey Governor and ex officio Trustee Chris Christie argued that American greatness lies in its people and not its government.

He offered several opinions on tax code reform, arguing for less government involvement in matters like personal income. The current system favors the rich, he claimed, but his own tax code proposition was one that would prove “fairer, flatter and simpler.

According to Christie, there should be no room for special interest tax deductions favoring the wealthy. He proposed that individuals be able to file taxes themselves in 15 minutes’ time. As president, he promised to reduce related government agencies by, for example, “firing a whole bunch of IRS agents.”

When asked about recent Chinese pirating and hacking of U.S. technology, Christie blamed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama’s “weak and feckless foreign policy” toward China.

“The Chinese don’t take us seriously, and why should they? They hacked into the American government’s personnel file and took millions of records in cyber warfare against this country. I’m one of its victims of that hack,” he said. “They took my Social Security Number, my fingerprints as a former United States attorney that was on file in there, and what has this president done? Not one thing.”

He noted that if elected president, he would implement an action plan.

“If the Chinese commit cyber warfare against us, they are going to see cyber warfare like they have never seen before,” he explained. “And that closed society in China — where they’re hiding information from their own people. The information we take? We’ll make sure all the Chinese people see it. That’ll have some real fun in Beijing.

The debate was sponsored by Fox Business Network and the Wall Street Journal, streaming live on FoxBusiness.com. The undercard debate began at 7 p.m., and the frontrunner debate began at 9 p.m.