Corporal Punishment Bill (President Ted Cruz)

On January 22, 2013, President Ted Cruz signs a bill loosening the currently laws surrounding child rearing and corporal punishment.

Background
This corporal punishment law was highly motivated and inspired by the book To Train Up a Child by Michael Pearl (who happened to Secretary of State).

Law in Detail
A parent, legal guardian, educator, or principal is permitted to use any physical discipline necessary on children of any age (including newborn infants) for wrongdoings. This includes, but is not limited to: spanking, paddling, physical labor, torture (waterboarding, etc.), kicking, punching, burning, drowning, and strangulation. Use of karate/Tae-Kwon-Do is also permitted on disobedient children.

Caregivers are permitted to use the following on children for corporal punishment: Bare hands, fists, shoes (spikes, cleats, spurs), belts, wooden boards/paddles, newspapers, books, baseball bats, golf clubs, plastic tubing, metal rods, tree branches, hammers, pepper spray, or other house tools.

Other forms of punishments are also permitted: Isolation, starvation, grounding, and abandonment.

Caregivers are permitted to discipline/beat up children and babies for no specific reason if they please.

Reaction
Hospitals, especially children's hospitals, became overcrowded due to child injuries as a result of the abuse. This mainly occurred around the Bible Belt region of the United States, most specifically Mississippi and Alabama.

2016 Scandal
On November 5, 2016, 2 days before the election, a video surfaces of Department of State Michael Pearl beating a 3-year old toddler he was asked to babysit with a hot iron and a golf club. Due to the Corporal Punishment Laws set forth on January 22, 2013, this form of discipline is legal and justified. In an interview on Fox News, Michael Pearl (Secretary of State) tells Sean Hannity that the child is in the hospital and the reason for him "disciplining" the child was because he spilt his juice on the floor.

This scandal highly influenced the election tally, resulting in Ted Cruz losing reelection.