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Cruz Campaign Press Release - ICYMI: Cruz Lays Out Plan To Rebuild Military

February 16, 2016


What They're Saying...

MT. PLEASANT, SC – Today, Ted Cruz announced a major policy proposal to rebuild America's military after seven years of President Obama's failed stewardship of the country's armed forces.  Highlights of media coverage are below:

.@tedcruz aboard the USS Yorktown on his guiding military philosophy: "more tooth, less tail." pic.twitter.com/ZAyOaGI1W1

— Betsy Klein (@betsy_klein) February 16, 2016

ABC NewsCruz Offers Plan to Rebuild the Military

Aboard a decommissioned World War II-era battleship here, Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz unveiled a sweeping plan to rebuild the U.S. armed forces, arguing that the military "has fallen to the bottom" of President Obama's priority list.

"If there is a silver lining in the Obama-Clinton foreign policy debacle, it is that now we know what a world without America would start to look like," the Texas senator said. "Far more dangerous and beholden to terrorists and criminal regimes."

Less than a week before the South Carolina primary, the Texas senator offered his ideas for expanding the size of the military, in both equipment and personnel, bolstering bases, updating technology and improving services for veterans. His guiding principle, he said, would be simple: "more tooth, less tail."

"Starting next year our sailors won't be on their knees with their hands on their heads," Cruz said referring to the U.S. sailors who were held in Iranian custody after their ship entered that country's waters. "Our secretary of state will not be apologizing and thanking their Iranian captors. Instead, they will be standing on the decks of the mightiest ships the world has ever known with their heads held high, confident that the great country that they volunteered to serve has their back."

Aboard the Yorktown to unveil my plan to rebuild our military—one of the most serious tasks facing our next POTUS pic.twitter.com/O5gRnYoSQK

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) February 16, 2016

Washington ExaminerCruz invokes Reagan in call to strengthen military

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz invoked President Reagan's foreign policy and took a subtle shot at Florida Sen. Marco Rubio during a speech in Mount Pleasant, S.C., on Tuesday.

"It is clear now more than ever that far from being the hectoring menace to multiculturalism that Mr. Obama set out to humble, the United States is an indispensable force for global order and stability," Cruz said. "And now after seven years of neglect it is time for America once again to prioritize its strong, advanced and robust military.

"I am confident that if we put in the hard work, we can, as Ronald Reagan did in the 1980s, rebuild our military so that it will be feared by our enemies and trusted by our allies."

Unlike his routine stump speeches throughout early nominating states where Cruz roams the stage speaking without notes, the senator stood behind a podium and read his remarks aloud. He also stood with former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a veteran and former 2016 presidential candidate who endorsed Cruz's campaign aboard the USS Yorktown.

Dallas Morning NewsIn S.C., Ted Cruz turns his focus to the military

Speaking aboard the USS Yorktown, Cruz promised more troops, more planes and more ships. He pledged to fix the VA. He said he would end the "political correctness" and "social experiments" that he says have run amok in the military.

And touting the effort as "one of the most serious tasks facing our next commander-in-chief," Cruz said the process "should not be an indiscriminate exercise in re-inflating the tire."

"It will require serious thought and planning," he said. "Our goal should not be simply to pour back into the Defense Department the vast sums that President Obama has so irresponsibly drained out. But rather to seize this opportunity to make generational investment..."

But Cruz's speech was enough on Tuesday to lock up the support of 63-year-old Chris Meredith, who had long leaned toward Marco Rubio.

"The military is close to my heart," said Meredith, a Johns Island resident whose late husband was a Navy veteran. "And so this just really spoke to me today."

.@tedcruz at USS Yorktown in #SC delivering a strong vision for the #USMilitary #CruzToVictory #CruzCrew #Cruz2016 pic.twitter.com/CZ6jwnFR7x

— bruce redden (@brucereddenjr) February 16, 2016

Associated PressCruz proposes plan to bolster U.S. military

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is laying out his proposal for bolstering the U.S. military, in a state with a large military and veteran population.

Cruz, in South Carolina Tuesday, detailed his military platform inside the U.S.S. Yorktown, a World War II-era aircraft carrier.

Cruz called for increasing the number of active duty troops, airplanes and battleships. He did not put a price tag on his plans, but pointed to former President Reagan's approach as a model for how he would get it done.

Cruz said he will pay for it by cutting federal spending by at least $500 billion, sell federal assets and properties and also audit the Pentagon to find savings.

PoliticoTed Cruz pitches military buildup: 'More tooth, less tail'

In a sign of the speech's seriousness and importance, Cruz, who prefers to speak extemporaneously, stood at a lectern in a blue suit and tie and spoke from notes, with American flags and war planes behind him, aboard the U.S.S. Yorktown.

For much of the 2016 race, Cruz has sought a middle ground between the Republican Party's most hawkish wing, represented by Marco Rubio, and its libertarian wing, represented by Rand Paul. But ahead of the vote in South Carolina, where Cruz noted there are 400,000 veterans, he more forcefully aligned with the hawks.

"The world needs a strong America, and America must be strong if we are going to protect our great nation and the freedoms that we hold so dear," Cruz said. "It is clear now more than ever that far from being the hectoring menace to multiculturalism that Mr. Obama set out to humble, the United States is an indispensable force for global order and stability."

On USS Yorktown w/Apollo-era capsule nearby @tedcruz "We are not going to draft American women into military combat" pic.twitter.com/JQ1gWYqEv3

— Major Garrett (@MajorCBS) February 16, 2016

Washington PostTed Cruz looks to project military strength in South Carolina

The senator has said the military shouldn't be a "caludron for social experiments," including allowing transgendered soldiers to serve. Cruz said Tuesday that he would review a request by the Marine Corps to be exempt from military policy allowing women to serve in combat roles and would not allow women to register for the draft, should one be reinstated.

"Combat is death, honor and chaos," Cruz said. "The last thing any commander should need to worry about is the grades he is getting from some plush-bottomed Pentagon bureaucrat for political correctness or social experiments – or providing gluten-free MREs."

In Tuesday's speech, as well as a foreign policy address in December, Cruz is seeking to draw a clear line between himself and Rubio, whose foreign policy platform is much more interventionist.

"We will not go picking fights around the globe," Cruz said here. The purpose of a rebuilt military is not "to intervene in every conflict" and "engage in protracted exercises in nation building," Cruz said, but to "defend and advance" American interests.

Related Images

Ted Cruz, Cruz Campaign Press Release - ICYMI: Cruz Lays Out Plan To Rebuild Military Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/314660

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