'A True Capitalist Would Understand' — Mark Cuban Presses Cruz on Taxes and Healthcare

Billionaire investor Mark Cuban challenged Sen.

Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Tuesday to back a bipartisan bill to break up healthcare conglomerates, warning that failing to support it would mean accepting that “people are dying because they can’t afford care” as the national debt continues to climb above $40 trillion.

Clash Over Taxes In a post on X, Cuban said the wealthy should “pay taxes on what you earn,” calling for the elimination of loopholes and raising taxes on top earners back to pre-2017 levels.

Cruz responded, accusing Cuban of contradicting himself given his recent support for Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico, and crediting Trump-era tax cuts with pre-pandemic low unemployment.

Mark, your second paragraph refutes your first, and your support for James Talarico makes the contradiction even stranger.

You’re right: taxes change behavior.

That’s why President Trump cut them.

After years of Obama-era stagnation, we rewarded work and investment.

Before… — Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) September 1, 2026 Cuban told Cruz to “look at our deficit” and “how much we pay in interest every minute of every day.” U.S. national debt crossed $40 trillion in August, equivalent to roughly $116,486 per citizen.

It currently stands at $40.2 trillion.

The Congressional Budget Office projects federal debt will rise from 101% of GDP this year to 120% by 2036, with annual interest costs more than doubling to $2.1 trillion over the same period.

Read Also: Dell, Palo Alto, Credo Technology, MongoDB, GitLab: Why These 5 Stocks Are on Investors' Radars Today Break Up Big Medicine The entrepreneur, who founded Cost Plus Drugs, said his decision to campaign with Talarico hinged on his support for the bipartisan “ Break Up Big Medicine ” bill from Sens.

Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), which Cuban said would cut the deficit and make drug prices “drop like a rock.” The bill would prohibit companies from owning both a health insurer and a pharmacy benefit manager, and would allow regulators to force violators to sell assets or divest profits if they fail to comply. “A true capitalist would understand how these economics work,” Cuban said, asking Cruz whether he was “ready to whip up support among Republicans” or preferred “people dying because they can’t afford care.” Ted.

Look at our deficit.

Look at how much we pay in interest every minute of every day.

Look what that is doing to interest rates.

It’s Econ 101, you either have to raise revenue significantly, cut spending, significantly.

Or both.

Talarico committed to support the… — Mark Cuban (@mcuban) September 1, 2026 Talarico is running against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the 2026 Senate race.

Cuban Has Long Pushed to Break Up ‘Big Medicine’ Cuban has repeatedly called to break up large healthcare conglomerates, accusing vertically integrated insurers and providers of “abusing their market positions” while regulators failed to stop consolidation over the past decade. “There is a reason we have anti-trust laws,” Cuban said in May. “If you want less government in healthcare, it can’t happen until these conglomerates are broken up.” He has also criticized lawmakers for not backing the Hawley-Warren bill sooner, claiming several Democratic senators privately supported it but wouldn’t publicly endorse it without more Republican support.

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