Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said Wednesday that high prices cost Republicans control of Congress and warned that the economy could tip into recession if Democrats shut down planned projects.
Strong Markets Hide the Pain
In a post on X, Cruz said that Republicans leaned on macro numbers showing soaring stock markets, record median income and record-low poverty, but those figures “don’t tell all of the story.”
A Kansas exit poll he cited ranked cost of living, energy, and groceries as voters’ top issue, at 30.6%.
Cruz called the economy “K-shaped,” with a “yawning divide” between the world’s first trillionaire and millions of families struggling to put food on the table.
Elon Musk became the first person worth $1 trillion in June after Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:SPCX) strong market debut, and has dipped below and returned to that mark a few times since. On Tuesday, his net worth was at $898 billion, per Bloomberg.
Tariffs and the Iran War Hit Prices
Tariffs “have made everything too expensive,” Cruz said, and the Iran war “has dragged on too long.”
The war has cost the U.S. military more than $47 billion, per Pentagon data Reuters obtained last month, over 25% above the $37.5 billion Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth cited in July.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated that higher energy prices from the conflict added 2.3 percentage points to annualized inflation in the second quarter.
Cruz said 10.1% of voters named the cost of the Iran war as their top issue and 7.6% named the ongoing Canada trade war.
Warns of a Recession if Investment Stops
“Over $700 billion in new projects are scheduled to start in the next year,” Cruz said.
Should Democrats shut them all down, Cruz predicted, the country would “very likely go into a recession.”
In Texas, Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa, who beat Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, has called for a moratorium on new data centers until lawmakers put real protections in place.
Cruz warned that Texas will become “more like California” if Democrats succeed in “halting all new investment into AI,” while conceding that electricity bills have risen 30% in five years as data centers turned billionaires into “centibillionaires.”
Price Action: The State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) rose 1.65% on Wednesday to close at $766.81 and fell 0.02% to $766.67 in extended trading. The Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ:QQQ) closed 0.97% higher at $691.95 and fell 0.69% to $687.16 in after-hours trading.
Benzinga Edge rankings indicate the State Street ETF has a Momentum score in the 65th percentile, with negative price trends in the short and medium term. In the long term, the ETF has a positive trend.
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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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