Cruz was supposed to take a fly over the Keystone in southeast Texas but those arrangements were canceled Tuesday because of the weather. But he had two other stops in Houston, and we were the only local news crew with him the whole day.
Cruz is a politician who stays on message.
"We can't keep spending more and more money," he said.
He gave two similar speeches Tuesday, in which he talked economic recovery, abolishing the IRS and defunding the Affordable Care Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
"What I'm doing everyday is traveling the state of Texas, traveling the country, trying to build a grassroots army to defund Obamacare because Obamacare is the single biggest job killer in this country," Cruz said.
But one issue that had him off message were the media's questions about his citizenship. Born in Canada to an American mother, he is a U.S. citizen. But when a report contended he might also be a Canadian citizen, Cruz said he would give up that right -- not having known about it previously.
"When I was a kid, my mother told me if I ever wanted to, I could affirmatively choose to claim Canadian citizenship because I was born there. But I got a U.S. passport, never did anything to claim it, lived my whole life here, and so I thought that was the end of it," Cruz said.
Also of Canadian interest is the Keystone Pipeline, which Cruz supports. And he met with the representatives from TransCanada here in Houston to discuss what he calls a no-brainer in public policy, despite environmental opposition.
"We have the potential right now in the coming years to achieve North American energy independence. There are enormous oil reserves in Canada and we need to bring that down to the Gulf Coast, refine it here," Cruz said.
Cruz left Houston Tuesday afternoon to go to Dallas for a big event, the topic of which is the Affordable Care Act. He then spends the rest of the week in various parts of Texas to talk about the issues that are important to him.
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