I thought this article might be interesting to some of you:
Ted Cruz the new Republican nominee for US Senate in Texas happens to have been born in Calgary and lived there for several years(I happen to believe even under Canadian nationality law of the era he is a dual citizen). Additionally Cruz was personally endorsed by several other “Tea Party” Senators including three of the four recent authors of that FATCA letter to Geithner(Jim DeMint, Mike Lee, and Rand Paul).
I will also note that all of the Washington “establishment” journalists are quite upset with Cruz’s victory complaining he is “hardliner” who will “gum up” the US Senate along with Rand Paul, Jim Demint, and Mike Lee.
That is GREAT! I had seen he had won, but frankly had not been following closely. Thanks for pointing this out…
Although I find most of the Tea Party polices abhorrent, their proponents would probably be the best hope to change, or least block, some aspects of the U.S tax system. most offensive to expat Americans.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Considering that Obama and the Dems are not much different than Romney and the Republicans, we might as well hope that the Republicans win such that they ease up on us expatriates.
http://www.rall.com/rallblog/2012/06/08/burn-it-down
@clint
I agree with you. I am especially uncomfortable with their social conservative religious views, but when it comes to fiscal issues, I do find common ground.
*I do like the militancy and instragence of the tea party. I believe this is necessary to repeal FATCA because I think a significant number of senior IRS and Treasury employees in the public service will resign in protest if FATCA is repealed or in anyway blocked. For example I could see a lot of attorney’s in the general counsel office resigning in protest.
@Tim, why would they resign, because they’ll have lost their job security? 🙂
From my very , very limited knowledge of Texas politics, Cruz is heavily favored to win in November against a relatively weak Democratic opponent
*For same reason Nixon’s Attorney General resigned in the Saturday Night Massacre.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday_Night_Massacre
*People like Manual Corwin and Jesse Eggert are not long term players in government in general. They can go out with a splash by resigning publically.
@all- I’m watching the PBS Newshour show and Mr. Cruz is the lead off story. When it comes to the issue of his origins the only thing that they saw fit to talk about was the Cuban connection. There was absoultely no mention of his Canadian roots or the time that his parents spent living in Canada.
I lived and breathed Texas politics for most of my life – i.e. since the ’60s. A few comments.
The Texas Democratic Party has been in awful disarray for over a decade. The person that Cruz beat in the Republican primary, Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst, was also favoured to win the general. Another way to put it is that virtually any Republican candidate for senator would win in November. So it’s no big deal that Cruz is favoured in the general election.
Cruz will be the junior senator from Texas. He may be a TP darling but protocol suggests, almost mandates, that he defer – to a certain extent – to John Cornyn, the senior senator, who voted for the RIDE Act. I might expect some meaningful legislation from Mr Cruz in two or three years. All I can say for Cornyn is that he looks senatorial, and that may not be enough for him to avoid being evicted by a TP candidate in the 2014 election.
Keeping in mind that Mr. Cruz will be the junior senator, he represents the interests of Texas, the Texas TP wing, and his donors, in no particular order. While DATCA may get his interest as well as that of his donors, FATCA and its effect on expats is unlikely to be on his radar – at least for now.
His Canadian connection is interesting and something I was unaware of. However that will likely be of little (if any) interest to Texas voters.
Anyone interested in another look at Ted Cruz, Texas politics, and a decidedly jaundiced view of the Texas Tea Party would do well to investigate Paul Burka’s blog. Google the phrase burkablog.
@extex
Thanks for those comments and insights. I happened to catch some of this yesterday on Rachel Maddow as I was flipping dials on XM radio. I was interested in the comments being made by her guest Lou Dubose who seems pretty knowledgeable on Cruz and Texas politics. He is on the left side of the spectrum, but seemed non hyperbolic. Would be interested in your comments or additional insights
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/ns/msnbc-rachel_maddow_show/#48431520
@extex
btw, thanks for that blog. I didn’t recognize it until I realized this was from the Texas Monthly which I am familiar with..
Here is his latest… http://www.texasmonthly.com/blogs/burkablog/?p=13982
@Just Me, you are most welcome and thank you for sharing the link.
Mr. Dubose seems to have a pretty good handle on Cruz and Texas politics. There were two big contributors to Dewhurst’s defeat – the avalanche of out-of state money backing Cruz, and the Dew’s endorsement by Rick Perry (who is seen as a loser, rightly so for having run such an incompetent campaign for president).
Follow the money to learn who backs people like Ted Cruz, Scott Walker, Dick Mourdock, and what their objectives are.
There is potential for DATCA to gain some traction as a campaign issue, especially in border states (big bad federal government bureaucrats and their regulations getting in the way of Biz and costing Biz their hard earned dollars). But are politicians going to raise it, and then make the connection to FATCA? I hope so – but doubt it.
@extex
Thanks for the confirmation and additional comments. It will be interesting to see if the Politicians understand or admit to the FATCA to DATCA connection. I certainly point it out every chance I get.
Since you seem to be rather new here, and correct me if I am wrong, but not sure you saw the post on the Miami Herald story, so would draw your attention to it, if you did not.
@Just Me, thank you for sharing the link to the post and comments. I had not read the post until now.
The Herald article was interesting, the first I have seen reporting on the Stateside impact of D/FATCA. There is potential for similar impacts in places like Texas, North Carolina (which has a relatively large migrant farm worker population), California, the tech centers (the Bay area, Boston, and so on) as well as the New York City and Washington DC regions. So I suppose that there is at least some reason to hope for DATCA to be undone, which in turn can be the undoing or at least significant modification of FATCA.
In a way I am new here. I have lurked for months, yet have only recently begun posting.
@extex…
Well, you are most welcome. Glad you are commenting. You may note a bit of a passionate debate going on right now about extremist or offensive language, or off topic political talk, but don’t worry, I think IBS will stay on the rails. 🙂
I was just out walking this afternoon, and listening to a program I try to catch each week called Left, Right and Center. There was an interesting exchange between Joshua Treviño of the Texas Monthly, and Eliot Spitzer which I thought you might be interested in….
Ted Cruz: Texas Tea Party and Ivy League
That is the link to the media player, and if for some reason that doesn’t work for you, here is the link to the program page. Just hit the Listen button.
The specific discussion about Ted Cruz starts on minute ~19:30
Interesting development, indeed.
@Just Me, thanks.
Not at all put off by passionate debate; you may see that I put in my loonies’ worth. 🙂 I’m sure that the Society will stay on track.
I will go check out the LR&C program and comment perhaps tomorrow or Tuesday.
The Toronto Star reports today that Ted Cruz is planning to renounce his Canadian citizenship:
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2013/08/20/us_senator_ted_cruz_to_renounce_his_canadian_citizenship_i_am_a_us_citizen.html
I wonder if that means that he, an “accidental Canadian”, will have sympathy with “accidental Americans” and other US expatriates.
Prof. Christians had a fun post on Cruz: “Here is the only reason why Ted Cruz’s citizenship is interesting”
http://taxpol.blogspot.com/2013/08/here-is-only-reason-why-ted-cruzs.html