'Israel' sponsors Cruz podcast ads amid foreign funding questions

from al Maydeen English

The Israeli government is running advertisements on Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-Texas) podcast, “Verdict with Ted Cruz,” raising questions about whether the staunchly pro-"Israel" lawmaker could indirectly benefit from foreign government-funded advertising through an arrangement involving the show’s revenue, according to reporting by Connor Echols, managing editor of Responsible Statecraft, and Nick Cleveland-Stout, a research associate at the Quincy Institute, in an article published by Responsible Statecraft. 

iHeartMedia, a major radio and podcast company, has syndicated Cruz’s program since 2022. Because of restrictions related to lobbying, the company is prohibited from paying the senator advertising revenue directly. However, an alternative arrangement allows revenue generated by the show to benefit a political committee supporting Cruz.

Under a licensing agreement, iHeartMedia agreed to donate revenue “associated with (the show’s) advertising sales” to the Truth and Courage PAC, a super PAC committed to “ensuring that Ted Cruz is re-elected to the United States Senate.” Federal Election Commission filings show that the company has contributed at least $1,738,000 in “digital revenue” to the PAC since 2023...

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Ted Cruz Admits Trump Accounts Are Designed to Privatize Social Security Over Time

 from Common Dreams

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz said during a public conference this week that the so-called Trump Accounts established under the GOP’s 2025 budget law represent a viable path toward Social Security privatization—something the Texas lawmaker described as a “dirty little secret.”

During a panel discussion at the Milken Institute Global Conference in California, Cruz said that “conservatives in America, for 50 years... have been trying to do Social Security personal accounts.” Cruz, who lamented the failure of Bush-era efforts to privatize Social Security, described such personal accounts as vehicles into which the payroll taxes that finance current Social Security benefits could be diverted.

In the not-too-distant future, Cruz envisioned, “we’re going to be able to go to parents and say, ‘Hey, you know that Trump Account your kid has? ... Wouldn’t you like to be able to keep a portion of your tax payments that you’re paying already and, instead of sending it to Uncle Sam, wouldn’t you like to have a Trump Account just like your kid does?’'’

“My prediction is, within five years, that is going to have a really compelling constituency,” the Texas Republican added...

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