As 2019 approached President Cruz reflected on the accomplishments of his first two years. He was satisfied that congress had finally repealed Obamacare, though it wasn’t necessarily their idea. Without a President willing to throw billions at the system, the health care experiment was upside down six months after his inauguration, unable to sustain itself. Many insurance companies jumped ship long ago, and the few remaining that were holding out for a monopoly went bankrupt. The Affordable Care Act and it’s $500 billion price tag was a disastrous failure, not only for the tax payer, but for the insurance industry as well.

President Cruz was thrilled, and frankly quite surprised, at the effectiveness of health insurance portability across state lines. Insurance company start ups and investors flocked to the new competitive markets, premiums and deductibles had already fallen by 62 percent and experts say if the competition continues, health insurance could cost as little as auto insurance by 2020. Cruz’s approval rating had spiked at 72% but may climb even higher as working Americans continue to benefit from this legislation.

His illegal immigration policy was a mixed bag but seemed to be effective, the immigration penalty program, where illegals were allowed to stay but had to sacrifice all paid income taxes for twenty years was a deal breaker for many. The requirement to accept the program or be deported had two effects, many self deported refusing to accept the agreement, others embraced the program and immediately began the assimilation classes. Experts assume 2 million illegals went back to Mexico over the past year and a half, another 4.2 million were deported for not agreeing to the program or had a criminal history which was tagged for automatic and immediate deportation. By cutting the illegal alien population in half, having the border 100% secured, and a rigid deportation policy in place for criminal illegals, the Cruz administration offered citizenship to the remaining illegals with a number of caveats, the 20 year tax penalty, no welfare benefits, and zero tolerance on criminal activity. You either came to work or you went back to whatever homeland you came from……period.

When the wall was finally finished on the southern border, it was proven to be very effective, President Cruz was amused that they actually got Mexico to pay for it. After the first wave of illegal Mexicans held in California prisons were repatriated back to Mexico, President Enrique Peña Nieto called the White House to stop the program, he was told not only would it continue but was going  to increase in scope as more Mexican prisoners across the country were being processed for deportation. Mexico caved in and ponied up $700 million as their part in building the wall.  It was going to be be built regardless of Mexico’s participation, but the thought of losing $24 billion in remittance money from immigrants already in the U.S. the Mexican authorities deemed it cheaper to pay for the wall. All though panned by some conservatives, the “Amnesty for 20” program was reasonable noting that border was 100% secure, and the taxes paid in by the illegals who stayed had been diverted to help pay for schools and medical facilities effected by the illegals. They even got a new title, no longer illegal immigrants or undocumented workers, they were considered “20 Compliant”.

The President was also extremely relieved to have the ISIS issue under control. After removing Obama’s Pentagon puppets,  Secretary of Defense Colonel Allen West recruited the most aggressive group of experienced war Generals both active duty and veterans across all branches of the military. His one demand of these leaders…..think outside the box in defeating ISIS with minimal U.S. troop casualties. The group came up with a two tiered plan falling back on the lessons of Desert Storm implemented into the modern advancements of today’s military. Keeping this massive attack a secret is to this day an astonishing accomplishment. This could not have happened without Russian President Putin’s blessing in Syria, but the surprising relationship between Cruz and Putin continues to pay dividends. Although regarded as a ruthless leader, Mr. Putin still has common sense, and agreements reached by the two super powers with each country securing energy arrangements, nuclear arms reduction, and military base realignment in the UK. These historical agreements likely ended any talk of another “Cold War”, and a far cry from the Hillary Clinton reset button. With the U.S. and Russia in agreement that the rise of Radical Islam has become a tactical threat in Europe, partnering up against them seemed a logical step. A nuetered United Nations complained and passed resolutions which were promptly ignored by Secretary of State Bolton.

Calling up the largest military action since D-Day the combined branches of the U.S. military, along with Britain, France, Australia, and Jordan attacked cities, towns, compounds, and facilities held by ISIS fighters in Syria and Iraq. These were not surgical or pin prick strikes, it was massive brute force. Allied sorties unloaded an arsenal that would make “Shock and Awe” pale in comparison, the air campaign lasted three days, each country participating 24/7. Real time sat images along with special ops on the ground directed the ground assault on the fourth day. Assad sat back on instructions from Putin and the ground troops were free to attack from the eastern border of Iraq, which had been assessed from Jordan traveling undetected north for three days during the relentless aerial assault.

Allied ground forces comprised of four divisions per target spread across Syria and Iraq. Ar Raqqa fell first followed by Kobani and Allepo, in Iraq, Rammadi, Mosul, and Fulluja were liberated. The bombing had done its job, although there was intense fighting on the ground, ISIS fighters were not trained military units. After three days of constant aerial bombardment and word spread that allied forces were in country, thousands of ISIS fighters headed north to Turkey to escape the onslaught. Kurdish fighters, supplied and trained by US special ops, ambushed these ISIS deserters. In their rush to escape attacks from the south they had no supplies to counter the the Kurds, witnesses said that ISIS fighters began shaving and dressing like women to escape. Acknowledging that their fight was over ISIS prisoners, (those not executed immediately), quickly gave up intelligence on locations and names of ISIS leaders in exchange for letting them continue their retreat. The U.S. has not been told the fate of these fighters, and the Kurds remain silent of their whereabouts. There is no evidence that any of the estimated 15 thousand ISIS deserters ever made it to Turkey.

The victories were quick and decisive, after four weeks all allied forces were removed from the battlefield. Putin’s agreement with Assad to keep power in Syria after the war was a tough pill to swallow, but it was the only way for allied forces to enter the country without having to fight Assad and ISIS at the same time. Putin gets Syrian oil in return for abandoning Iran, which was part of the Assad deal to stay in power. The arrangement also secured U.S. interest in dropping any and all Obama agreements with Iran, along with the immediate freeze of all Iranian assets and the ending of Russian arms sold to Iran. The Iranians were furious and vowed vengeance against the Unites States, but they had been screaming this during the Obama administrations pandering. After losing Russian support and U.S. sanctions being re-imposed, Iranian rebel groups began fighting regime forces across the country keeping the Iranian military busy trying to quell the uprising. Iran was no threat to anyone other than it’s own people at that point.

The Cruz administration decided that a large expense dedicated to a short battle, trumped a long intermittent air campaign which Obama attempted and failed. The strategy worked, there were casualties on both sides but at 1000 to 1 in favor of the Allied forces Col. West’s dictate to commanders worked. There were large civilian casualties as well, but the only way to be sure the war would be successful was to take the gloves off, the U.S. did everything they could to minimize the damage, but this is war, and one not started by United States. ISIS committed terror attacks all over Europe in response to the war, but that decision backfired, as EU countries fought back with intelligence gained from the battle in Syria and Iraq. Documents siezed gave names and locations of terror cells around the globe, not just ISIS but Al-Nusra, Al Quaeda, and lone wolf operators who aligned with these terror organizations. In the end the war did more in 30 days then all of Obama’s efforts combined, effectively stopping terrorism in it’s tracks, over the following year you would hear of daily news reports around the world of terrorists either killed or imprisoned from intelligence gleaned from the war. There was no grand name given war, no Operation This or Operation That, President Cruz gave very clear instructions, win it, and get the hell out, failure was not on option.

There was no gloating or spiking of the football after the war and it’s amazing success, the loss of U.S. troops killed in a military action he ordered weighed heavily on his mind, it was not a time to celebrate. President Cruz addressed the nation and informed them the war was over and all soldiers had been given orders to return home, he announced the number of American troops killed and read each name aloud, then thanked the families of those killed and wounded acknowledging that their sacrifices were not in vain. It was a short and emotional speech.

President Cruz assumed his two years in office so far have been effective, yet it was not without turmoil. Domestically he is still being slandered by the liberal media, even after all of his successes. His efforts in suspending both former President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton’s public service pensions for their failure to send help for Americans in Benghazi and the corresponding cover up, the media has been doing all it can to disparage him. Even after Hillary’s emails proved that she was personally involved in pay to play politics as Secretary of State the media denied they were real, even after Obama’s college transcripts were released showing his affirmative action magic carpet ride, the media still looked the other way. President Cruz has mentioned that this ideology or cult of leftist media will probably never end due to the fact that the majority of the media are products of liberal academia brainwashed in the ways of the liberal Cult from grade school on.

After the announcement of the closings of the alphabet departments, (IRS, EPA, Department of Energy & Education), and the shutting down of lobbyists and K Street, the politics of Washington began to change. Establishment Republicans started working with conservatives to find other ways to run the government more effectively, once the changes of the first two years began to bear fruit, Republican approval ratings began to climb. Even center left Democrats started reaching across the isle, something that was a one way street made only by Republicans during previous administrations.

All in all President Cruz was satisfied with his first two years, and with China coming around due to Trump’s currency and trade deals and manufacturing jobs coming back to America with the new corporate tax code, things seemed to be going in the right direction. If the next two years of this term go like the first two, a second term is almost assured.