![Canadian Ted Cruz from pro-Rubio ad [YouTube screengrab]](https://images.dailycaller.com/image/width=960,height=411,fit=cover,f=auto/https://cdn01.dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/2000px-Flag_of_Minnesota.svg_10-e1453224460987.png "Canadian Ted Cruz from pro-Rubio ad [YouTube screengrab]")
A new ad from a Marco Rubio-aligned super PAC has joined the chorus bashing Ted Cruz for being Canadian … this time, because of his tax plan.
“What’s Canadian about Ted Cruz? His tax plan,” the ad from Conservative Solutions PAC opens. “Cruz wants a value-added tax like they have in Canada, and European socialist countries.”
Throughout the ad, a picture of Cruz is shown within the outline of Canada’s iconic maple leaf, while the ad’s colors are nearly entirely red and white, like the Canadian flag. Despite the ad’s Canadian tint, though, it seems intended as a mere allusion to the debate over Cruz’s eligibility than a genuine attack on the politician’s birthplace. Rubio himself has said Cruz’s Canadian birth is a non-issue.
“Obama and Pelosi say they’re open to [a value-added tax},” the ad continues. “President Reagan hated it. Conservatives call the Cruz scheme a liberal’s dream because it makes it so easy to raise taxes.”
A value-added tax is a form of consumption tax, where businesses are taxed for their sales revenue minus their costs paid to other businesses. Cruz has insisted that his tax plan is not a value-added tax, instead referring to it as a “business flat tax” that can replace other existing corporate taxes. Outside analysts like the Tax Foundation disagree, though, and have consistently described it as a value-added tax, albeit one with some differences from those used in Europe.
Creative Solutions PAC has also debuted another ad that accuses Cruz of being a Machiavellian “calculator” who shifts his positions with the political wind.
A third ad touts Rubio as a “Democrat nightmare” in the general election.
The PAC says it is paying to have the ads run on television in early primary states.
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