Cruz, Perry: Change Is Coming in 2016

Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, was among the keynote speakers at a Texas-Americans for Prosperity Summit over the holiday weekend.

The senator took the opportunity to energize his grassroots Tea Party base at the event.

Cruz talked about hot topics, such as the president's Affordable Care Act and how Republicans will target it in 2016.

"In the year 2017, a Republican president in the Rose Garden is going to sign a bill that is going to repeal every word of ObamaCare," he said.

Cruz also told the crowd President Barack Obama needs to respond to the greatest terror threat now facing the free world.

"ISIS says they want to go back and reject modernity," he said. "Well, I think we should help them; we ought to bomb them back to the stone age."

Cruz elaborated as he delivered one jab after another to the Obama administration.

He criticized the president for not visiting the U.S.-Mexico border during the child immigration crisis. And he called on the United States to stand strong in its defense of Israel.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry also spoke at the event. Like Perry, he's considered a top contender for the 2016 Republican presidential candidacy.

"The good news is there are exactly 128 days left until the next Congress convenes with a Republican house and a Republican Senate," Perry told summit participants.

Protests took place outside while Perry spoke, calling on the Texas governor to expand Medicaid in the state and accept the $100-billion in federal funding by adopting some Obamacare provisions.

The mood inside stayed positive.

"The American people are rising up to take our country back, to the restore the American Dream, [and] to get back to the free market principles and constitutional liberties this country was built on," Perry told an enthusiastic crowd.