Cruz #1

With Ted Cruz' formal announcement of a presidential candidacy, the 2016 election season is officially upon us. I expect that it will be horrible, sickening and disgusting—in general, but also specifically because of the horrible, sickening and disgusting things that Republican candidates will say in their quests. So in honor and expectation of those statements and positions, I hereby announce my intent to keep a log of them. Over time, these humble pages are likely to provide fairly conclusive evidence that the Republican candidates for President of these United States are (a) significantly out of touch with the any realities outside of their own self-defined and self-serving obsessions, and (b) committed to ideologies and principles that are not only out of touch with reality but which in fact are extremist positions on pretty much everything.

I could be wrong. We'll see.

And this is definitely a TEAM SPORT. Please send me your ideas, quotes, instances of publicly-displayed idiocy, etc., and I'll post them here.

The guidelines to my little game:

• Use direct quotes whenever and wherever possible. Try to provide enough quote, both before and after the key part, to show that the key part is not being taken out of context.
• Provide the source of the quote and any relevant specifics.
• Be as fair and objective as possible.
• Provide a little commentary/reflection on the quote, in case dear reader doesn't immediately grasp the implications of the quote. 

Senator Cruz begins our journey with the following quote:

“We need to pass fundamental tax reform making our tax code simpler, flatter, fairer,” he said Monday at Heritage Action’s 2015 conservative policy summit. ”And I’ll tell you, the single most important tax reform, we should abolish the IRS."  [ 12 January 2015 ]

I don't think any sane person can possibly think that a 21st century country can do without its revenue agency. To suggest that we don't need it, or that it should be abolished, is naive, stupid, irresponsible, etc. How is it even possible for somebody to think that?