Is ‘team Player' Ted Cruz Here to Stay? GOP's Tax Push Gives Latest Proof of Softer Style

WASHINGTON — Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is not getting the flat tax he’s long desired.Or perhaps even a reduction in the number of tax brackets. Or the elimination, it appears, of the estate tax and some other parts of the code the Republican loathes. Or the fulfillment of his stated goal of “cutting taxes for every taxpayer in America.”And yet, when a lone GOP senator last month threatened to scuttle the party’s $1.5 trillion tax plan, it wasn’t the Texan once famous for helping shut down the government over ideological purity.“It’s counterproductive for any of us to be drawing red lines,” he said in an interview with The Dallas Morning News.That Cruz is all-in on a revamp that achieves only some — but not all — of his most fervent policy goals offers fresh proof of his recent focus on building coalitions rather than busting them up.  Continue reading...