Ted Cruz Talks And I Wish He Didn't

CNBC’s John Harwood Interviews Senator Ted Cruz from CNBC Institutional Investor Delivering Alpha Conference Today:

SENATOR TED CRUZ: I would suggest a couple of things. Number one, GDP growth. My number one priority in office is economic growth because it's foundational to opportunity. And number two, I would say income mobility. The ability of those at the bottom of the economic ladder to move up.

I think Ted Cruz supports a variation of a Lake Wobegon economy. We all will be CEO's and make tons of money and no-one will take out the garbage. Or perhaps he is suggesting an economy with a ladder that keeps getting longer. The people at the bottom may move up the ladder, but the people on the top move up too.

JOHN HARWOOD: Yes. The fact that no one on Wall Street was criminally prosecuted for events that occurred around the financial crisis has prompted criticism from some people, from the Elizabeth Warren wing of the Democratic party, some Republicans as well.

Do you think it was wrong that nobody on Wall Street went to jail? And do you think Hillary Clinton said in her economic speech the other day that one of her objectives as president was to toughen the approach to those prosecutions?

SENATOR TED CRUZ: You know, Hillary did say that. And no one who has observed Hillary Clinton's policies for the last 30 years believes that for an instant.

2016 - 30 = 1986. Bill Clinton was governor of Arkansas. Ronald Reagan was president. Hillary Clinton must be one damn powerful woman!

Cruz goes on and on, totally ignoring the fact that Elizabeth Warren and "some Republicans" were a part of the question. I know that Elizabeth Warren wants Wall Streeters and corporate criminals to be prosecuted.

More blah, blah, blah from Cruz... Something about Santa Claus, Obama, thugs and enforcers.

SENATOR TED CRUZ: I don't think they have remotely. I think the Democrats are the party of the rich and big government and cronyism. That is the Democratic party.

What is Cruz trying to pull here? It is generally thought that the Republicans are the party of the rich and croynism. I think that both parties are the parties of the rich and big government and cronyism. Also, we are a big country, don't we need a big government? Sure, it could use some pruning, but where would we be without government services? The Republican/Tea party provided the answer to that a few years ago, when they shut down the government. "According to a Washington Post-ABC News poll, 81% of Americans disapproved of the shutdown, 86% felt it had damaged the United States' image in the world, and 53% held Republicans accountable for the shutdown."

SENATOR TED CRUZ: Let's take Dodd-Frank, for example. Dodd-Frank was sold to the American people as stopping the problem of too big to fail.

How did that work out? The big banks are bigger. There's been greater concentration. And the people, John, that have been driven out of business are the little guys. It's the small banks. It's the community financial institutions.

JOHN HARWOOD: But we don't know if too big to fail worked because we haven't had a crisis. You're only going to know if somebody is on the verge of failing.

SENATOR TED CRUZ: Here's the point. The big banks were in the room with the Democrats writing Dodd-Frank. Driving the little guys out of business wasn't an unintended consequence. It was the intended outcome.

First off, no one has to be "in the room" anymore. They just need ALEC.

Second, Regional Banks are still here, they were not "driven out of business". "Community financial institutions" like credit unions still exist as well. Unfortunately, lying politicians do still exist.

Third, is Ted Cruz qualified to talk about financial matters? He tends to forget things.

Fourth, what about Heidi Cruz? Any conflict of interest? She is an investment manager at Goldman Sachs, one of the big banks that according to Ted were "in the room" with all those dastardly Democrats.

Fifth, Dodd-Frank was passed into law by somebody (Congress) and there was Republican support for Dodd-Frank:

With regards to the lack of bipartisan input on the legislation, Dodd alleged that had he put together a "[...] bipartisan compromise, I think you make a huge mistake by doing that. You're given very few moments in history to make this kind of a difference, and we're trying to do that." Put another way, Dodd construed the lack of Republican amendments as a sign "[...] that the bill is a strong one".

During a Senate Republican press conference on April 21, 2010, Richard Shelby reported that he and Dodd were meeting "every day", and were attempting to forge a bipartisan bill. Shelby also expressed his optimism that a "good bill" will be reached, and that "we're closer than ever". Saxby Chambliss echoed Shelby's sentiments, saying "I feel exactly as Senator Shelby does about the Banking Committee negotiations.", but voiced his concern about maintaining an active derivatives market and not drive financial firms overseas. Kay Bailey Hutchison indicated her desire to see state banks have access to the Fed, while Orrin Hatch had concerns over transparency, and the lack of Fannie and Freddy reform.

It seems to me that there were Republicans in the room as well. My final words to Cruz about Dodd-Frank are George W. Bush, the war criminal most responsible for nearly bringing down the U.S. economy. Let's not forget that he was the Republican president when everything came crashing down. Unfortunately for all of us Bush actually looks good when compared to the current group of Republican candidates.