Exclusive Ted Cruz on announcing candidacy for president2

Exclusive Ted Cruz on announcing candidacy for president

HANNITY: Why does Ted Cruz -- why do you, Senator, want to be president? It's a big decision, a big impact on your family. and how would a Cruz presidency differ from an Obama presidency?



CRUZ: Well, our country is in crisis. And we were talking just a minute ago. We've got to change the direction that we're on. One of the things I talked about this morning in the announcement speech is so many Americans across this country feel that the promise of America is drifting away from them, is unattainable. that, you know, the miracle that was this nation, that our rights we understand they come from God and not government, that government is limited and that any one of us can come, like your family, like my family, with nothing and achieve anything.  That's slipping away.



HANNITY: You think that's slipping away. Here are the numbers -- 92 million Americans not in the labor force.



CRUZ: Yes.



HANNITY: Highest number since the '70s. Almost 50 million Americans on food stamps. Almost 50 now in poverty. Almost 20 million more than when President Obama took office. $18 trillion in debt, $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities. Those are real, real economic problems.



CRUZ: Yes.



HANNITY: Specifically, how do you bring a budget in balance? How do you fix this economy? How do you get those people back in the labor force?



CRUZ: Well, we can turn it around, and how you do it is all interconnected. My first and top priority is growth and jobs and opportunity. You know, if you look at the federal budget -- you're a numbers guy -- there is only one first order variable when it comes to the budget, and that is economic growth. Everything else is a second or third order variable. Everything else...



HANNITY: Even spending?



CRUZ: Even spending is a much smaller impact on the federal budget than growth. Historically in this country, we've averaged 3.3 percent growth a year since World War II. There have only been two four-year periods where growth has averaged less than 1 percent a year, 1978 to 1982 -- now, that was coming out of Jimmy Carter, same failed economic policies.  And then 2008 to 2012, where GDP growth averaged 0.9 percent a year.



If we can get back to historic levels of growth, 3, 4, 5 percent, suddenly, the federal budget picture transforms. Suddenly, we have the revenue to take care and support our troops and build our military to defend this nation. Suddenly, it becomes possible to step in and preserve and reform Social Security and Medicare. Suddenly, it becomes possible to turn the problems around.



HANNITY: The way government works, you have baseline budgeting, where there's built-in increases every year. We've had -- this president will accumulate as much, if not more, debt than every other president before him combined.



CRUZ: Yes.



HANNITY: That's unsustainable, right? So spending has to be a part of it. Do you cut back -- do you curb spending?



CRUZ: Absolutely, yes. You know, one of the things you have advocated is the penny plan. I think the penny plan has an awful lot of force to it. And I am an emphatic advocate of a balanced budget amendment, putting in the Constitution a strong balanced budget.



HANNITY: Every year, it must be in balance. With the penny plan, it would cut one penny out of every dollar every year for six years, and you would get without growth a balanced budget in six years. Would you support cutting a penny out of every dollar, defense, Social Security, Medicare?



CRUZ: You're going to be hard pressed to come up with a cost-cutting program that I'm not going to support. I do think the military -- we need to look at the growing national security threats and we need to make sure we take care of the men and women in the military and we provide what we need to protect this nation.



And also, if you look at the budget, you cannot bring the budget into control without taking on entitlement reform. Two thirds of the federal budget is entitlements. So if you don't talk about entitlements, you can't do it.



HANNITY: Entitlements. Means testing?



CRUZ: Absolutely.



HANNITY: Raise the age of eligibility?



CRUZ: Sure. Yes.



HANNITY: So somebody who paid in their whole life into Social Security, happens to have been successful, all that money that they were promised, No.



CRUZ: Well, look, I think any Social Security reform that you do, for those people who are seniors, for those people who are near retirement, we need to honor the commitments we've made to them.



HANNITY: You're talking about future generations.



CRUZ: You're talking about future generations, people my generation.  I'm 44. There are not a lot of people in my generation who think Social Security's going to be there for us.



HANNITY: I'm 53. I'm close to your generation, probably one step ahead.

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