'Conservatives Continue to Marvel': Ted Cruz Touts 7 Major Victories Under the Trump Administration

WASHINGTON – Since President Donald Trump took office last year, the conservative cause has seen a string of victories, according to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX).

Speaking before the Freedom & Faith Coalition's Road to Majority conference this week, the Texas lawmaker touted at least seven major wins for faith and families under the current administration.

Judges Who Uphold the Rule of Law

It's an accomplishment conservatives continue to marvel over: President Trump's string of "principled' judicial picks – most notably his nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the highest court in the land.

That pick bore fruit this week when the former Tenth Circuit Court judge sided with the high court majority which ruled in favor of Jack Phillips. The Christian baker nearly lost his business after he refused to bake a cake to celebrate a gay wedding.

"We see it in the federal courts all across the country, we see it in Justice Neil Gorsuch and let me be one to thank God for the victory we had this week in the Colorado baker's case," the Christian Post quotes Cruz as saying.

"If we lived in the sort of society that those who called themselves liberal prescribe, a tolerant society, that would have been the end of the story," he said of the case. "He would have lived according to his faith and we would have respected that faith and the diversity amongst us. But, there are those with a legal agenda that wanted to drive that baker out of business, to punish him and any other person of faith for daring to live according to their faith."

The Sanctity of Life

Cruz echoed fellow conservatives at this week's conference who hailed Trump as the most pro-life president in history.

"We saw the Department of Health and Human Services issue new rules, returning to the old rules prohibiting taxpayer funding from going to Planned Parenthood and clinics that provide abortions," he said.

"Not only that, but we saw the administration rescind the abhorrent so-called contraceptive mandate in Obamacare – a mandate that was interpreted by the Obama administration to force or to try to force believers to fund abortion-inducing drugs. The consequences of that decision is in the litigation against the Little Sisters of the Poor."

'Thanks for the Pay Raise!'

According to Cruz, this past Christmas got all the merrier for many Americans when Trump signed a $1.5 trillion tax overhaul into law, putting more money in the pockets of families.

"Cutting taxes on small businesses, cutting taxes on farmers, cutting taxes on ranchers, cutting taxes on families, doubling the standard deduction, What does that mean?" Cruz asked. "For a couple, standard deduction goes from $12,000 to $24,000. That means next year, 90 percent of Americans will be able to fill out your taxes on a postcard."

"We saw over 4 million Americans get pay raises, get bonuses because of the tax cut of $500, $1,000, more than $1,000," he continued. "I was flying a few months ago on Southwest Airlines and a flight attendant walked up to me, hugged me and said 'Thanks for the pay raise.'"

Repealing Obamacare

One of the most egregious parts of Obamacare was the law's individual mandate, which essentially fines Americans for not having health coverage.

In what Republicans consider a major accomplishment, that mandate was repealed under the tax bill.

"That is a big conservative victory that no one in Washington thought we would win," Cruz said. "Look, Obamacare is clearly the biggest unfinished promise that Republicans have. We need to finish the job. We need to keep rolling up our sleeves and finish the job and repeal every single word of Obamacare."

School Choice Amendment

Another major conservative victory, Cruz noted, was the school choice tax bill amendment, which allows parents and families to extend 529 college funds to pay for K-12 education at public and private schools.

"With that, we saw the most far-reaching, federal school choice legislation that has ever passed come into law providing benefits to up to 50 million school kids across the country, enabling parents and grandparents to save for your kids and to save for your grandkids and choose the best education options for them," he said.

Relocating the US Embassy to Jerusalem

Perhaps one of the Trump administration's most bold and notable accomplishments was its decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital and move the US Embassy there.

"We had a year-and-a-half battle in the Trump administration. I energetically argued for moving the embassy and President Trump made the right decision and now our embassy is in Jerusalem, the once and eternal capital of Israel."

The Iran Nuclear Deal

With Iran looming as a security threat to both the United States and Israel, both Cruz and Trump have long been in agreement that the Obama administration's nuclear accord with the Islamic Republic was a bad deal.

Consequently, when the president announced he was pulling out of the agreement, no one applauded louder than the Texas lawmaker.

"The president made the right decision to withdraw from the disastrous Obama-Iran nuclear deal," Cruz told the Faith & Freedom audience. "Obama had sent tens of billions of dollars to the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism, the Ayatollah Khomeini, who chants, 'Death to America and death to Israel.' When he says that, I believe him."