rising to the bait, that will be a problem. but if you were to build on this, i think the point that chris stirewalt made he really brought the ryan plan. republicans were really looking for there was a division inside the republican party about repeal and replace on issues like tax credits, how he will do with medicaid. he really bought into the ryan plan. there a lot of republicans that don t like that but he has given ryan and the presidential seal of approval that is job one. infrastructure will come later. obamacare, repeal and replace is job one. martha: tucker, a lot of people have wanted to light a fire under the g.o.p. you won both houses, you had all this time to come up with good ideas while you were sitting in the wilderness yourselves. where are they? you were going to take away this hated entitlement called obamacare and you had options, where are they?
gathered in that mission where ryan owens lost his life. 36 years ago, ronald reagan reinvented the joint session of congress address. creating not just a programmatic message but a deeply emotional message. i think donald trump reinvented it again tonight, 36 years later. i thought it was by far the best speech i ever heard donald trump give. it was one of the best speeches in that setting, that i ve heard any president give. w there were two extraordinary moments, one was when he said we are going to repeal and replace obamacare and you just felt a guttural roar from the republican side of the aisle. they ve been waiting seven years and for the first time tonight, a president said that to a session of congress. on the other hand he reached out he talked about radical
it is why my number one priority in the senate is and always has been jobs and economic growth. if you look at under obama, we saw year after year.nd that anemic growth, we cannot fix our problems with. that is why i m so impressed with president trump s speech tonight. regulatory reform, building the keystone pipeline, job crushing regulation, lifting the crushing regulation of the fda, allowing innovation and pharmaceuticals. tax reform, obamacare repeal. that will produce enormous economic growth. millions of new jobs. that is how we solve our fiscal crisis. bret: ten republicans sing from the same sheet of music when it comes to obamacare repeal and replace.
obamacare premiums nationwide have increased by double and triple digits, as an example, arizona went up 116% last year alone. the governor of kentucky just said obamacare is failing in his state.e. the state of kentucky. and it is unsustainablee and collapsing. one-third of the counties have only one insurer and they are losing them fast. they are losing them so fast. they are leaving and many americans have no choice at all, there is no choice left. remember, you were told you could keep your doctor and keep your plan. we now know that all of those promises have been totally broken. obamacare is collapsing. and we must act decisively to protect all americans.
i believe we can and i believe we must. we have to honor our commitment, we campaigned for six years promising to repealav obamacare. i think we have to start with the 2015 legislation, virtually every republican voted to repeal obamacare. let s start with that legislation. on top of that we need to repeal insurance mandates that are driving up premiums that are making health care unaffordable and then we should focus on areas of consensus. that brings republicans together. allowing purchase of insurance across state lines, expanding health savingsgs accounts. making health insurance affordable. if we focus on areas of consensus, that s how we get it done and i believe we will get it done.e. i m working very, very hard to try to bring my colleagues together in both the senate and house with the administrationwoo fulfill the promise to the american people. bret: we appreciate your time, senator cruz. martha: let s bring our panel back in.