TED CRUZ SENATOR FOR TEXAS - OPENING STATEMENT AT IRS TARGETING HEARING

TED CRUZ SENATOR FOR TEXAS - OPENING STATEMENT AT IRS TARGETING HEARING

Senator Ted Cruz Presses IRS Commissioner on Illegal Targeting of Conservatives

   

WASHINGTON, D.C. — While chairing a Judiciary Subcommittee hearing yesterday, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) questioned Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner John Koskinen and delivered a powerful statement on the IRS’ illegal targeting of conservative groups. 

Fox News: Cruz on Lost IRS Emails: ‘Nixon’s Ghost Must Have Been Smiling’
…Ted Cruz grilled IRS Commissioner John Koskinen and assailed the agency he leads at a heated hearing Wednesday where he likened claims that emails from controversial ex-official Lois Lerner were lost to a Richard Nixon cover-up. View video coverage of the hearing here. 

Washington Post: Ted Cruz Beats Up on IRS, Obama White House, Comparing It to Watergate

During his 12-minute opening statement, Cruz invoked Richard Nixon multiple times to draw a parallel between the Watergate criminal acts and the modern day IRS scandal, specifically the subsequent allegations of a cover-up when e-mails of Lois Lerner, the former director of the IRS’s exempt organizations unit, couldn’t be found.

The Hill: Citing IRS Targeting, Cruz Compares Obama to Nixon

The difference during Obama’s tenure, Cruz suggested, is that the IRS didn’t have the courage to stand up to the administration.

“If the IRS has become a partisan arm of the Democratic National Committee, there can be no stronger argument for ending the IRS as we know it,” Cruz said at a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing.

Washington Examiner: Watch: Cruz Compares Obama to Nixon

Sen. Ted Cruz compared the targeting of conservative groups by the IRS to the Watergate scandal during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday. The Texas Republican…blasted the Obama administration in his opening remarks, saying "When Richard Nixon did it it, it was wrong and he rightly resigned from the presidency in disgrace.”

National Review: Cruz Compares Actual Abuse by IRS in Targeting Obama’s Political Opposition to Nixon’s Attempted Abuse of IRS

…Senator Ted Cruz (R., Texas), in his capacity as chairman of the relevant subcommittee, gave a hard-hitting opening statement, comparing the revenue agency’s actual abuses of political opponents during the Obama presidency to Richard Nixon’s unsuccessful attempt to use the agency to target political adversaries.

Dallas Morning News:Ted Cruz Presses IRS Commissioner on Non-Profit Targeting

It’s been two years since the IRS targeting scandal broke, but Senate Republicans, led by Sen. Ted Cruz, said on Thursday they’re still looking for answers. The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Oversight, Agency Action, Federal Rights and Federal Courts, chaired by Cruz, on Wednesday questioned IRS Commissioner John Koskinen about the agency’s cooperation with investigations, and rehashed accusations of a White House conspiracy to target conservative groups.

Newsmax: Ted Cruz: Nixon’s Ghost Is Smiling While Watching Obama’s IRS

With Commissioner John Koskinen seated in front of him on Wednesday, Cruz tore into the agency's alleged abuses of power—namely its extra scrutiny of Tea Party groups seeking tax- exempt status and its destruction (inadvertent, the agency says) of e-mails sent by Lois Lerner, the former head of the IRS exempt organizations office. 

Machine Generated Transcript, expect errors

  0:01 the Syrian come to order welcome everyone met welcome mister gaskin 0:05 appreciate your being here we're here today 0:10 convening this hearing for two unfortunate reasons 0:15 main reason we're here 0:18 because we have a broken tax system in this country 0:22 our income tax system today 0:27 embodied in the IRS hurts the American dream 0:33 it takes money out of the pockets of hard-working Americans 0:37 it reduces their take-home pay it stifles economic growth 0:43 it keeps small businesses from becoming big business 0:48 and it's created a labyrinth of credits and deductions 0:53 that empowers politicians 0:57 at the expense of hardworking Americans 1:01 but the other reason we're here 1:05 is because with the exponential growth for the tax code with the unbelievable 1:11 complexity 1:12 our current tax system we have seen the creation 1:19 have an entity that I believe is no longer serving the interest to the 1:23 american people 1:24 the IRS has been considered 1:31 by the american people to be an abusive agency for so long 1:35 that for many americans it's become the embodiment 1:40 what's wrong with government and what's wrong with Washington 1:45 as it has met ass to sizet 1:49 over the decades taking more and more into the pockets 1:53 hardworking taxpayers the IRS has become more and more powerful 2:00 there are few things more terrifying to an American citizen 2:07 and the IRS come knocking at your door 2:16 but the last six-and-a-half years it's taken an even darker turn 2:21 students of history are well aware 2:25 that richard nixon attempted to use the IRS 2:31 to target his political enemies that was wrong 2:36 it was an abuse of power and it is to the credit 2:40 other professionals at the IRS today refused president nixon's demands 2:48 that the IRS be turned into a political weapon 2:52 the last six-and-a-half years 2:56 unfortunately the IRS did not demonstrate that same courage that same 3:03 integrity that same willingness to stand up to political demands 3:06 the available evidence indicates that not only did the Obama administration 3:13 attempt 3:14 to use the IRS to silence to punish its political enemies 3:19 but the Obama administration succeeded 3:24 in doing so when richard nixon abused his power he was rightly condemned 3:31 by both parties for an abuse of power 3:35 and indeed in the early days at the IRS scandal 3:40 the same was true of the Obama administration on the day that the 3:46 inspector general reported the Treasury Department broke 3:49 President Obama said he was outraged he said I am angry 3:54 and the american people have a right to be angry as well I don't say this often 4:02 but I agree emphatically with President Obama 4:06 the American people have the right 4:10 to be angry when an instrumental the federal government is used as a partisan 4:15 cudgel 4:16 to punish to silence 4:20 citizens that dare speak out against their government that dare 4:25 take a differing policy view 4:30 than the current party in power 4:32 and yet 4:38 although the American people had a right to be angry many months have passed 4:43 years have passed and not one single person has been indicted 4:49 years have passed 4:53 and many of the victims are the legal targeting 4:57 have yet to be interviewed now some might think that is curious 5:05 if the president of the united states was telling the truth when he said he 5:10 was angry 5:11 one would expect action from prosecutors 5:15 and yet subsequently the rather stunning news broke 5:20 that the Obama Justice Department put in charge of the investigation 5:25 a major Democratic donor 5:28 who were given over six thousand dollars personally 5:32 the President Obama and the Democrats and wonder I wonder marvel at marbles 5:39 when you ask a major Democratic donor 5:41 to investigate whether the IRS is targeting the political enemies 5:45 at the Obama White House 5:49 nothing happens twice we've seen lowest learner come before the united states 5:56 congress 5:57 raise her hand and plead the fifth now that is her right under the Constitution 6:04 under the bill of rights 6:05 but it's worth understanding what that means when you are pleading the fifth 6:09 you were saying if I answer your questions I may well 6:12 implicate myself in criminal conduct 6:16 a senior official at the IRS 6:20 twice saying if I answer your questions 6:23 I could end up in the slammer 6:27 anyone who cares about integrity in government 6:32 should be horrified at senior government officials say I can't tell you what I 6:37 did 6:40 because criminal liability may result 6:45 and yet 6:49 those protestations of how I angry the president was how angry the american 6:55 people 6:56 should had been somehow faded into the mist 7:01 with a pattern we've seen a scandal after scandal ever after scandal in this 7:06 administration 7:07 on day one the president always says he's angry 7:10 and then the next step kicks in 7:14 the administration begins stonewalling 7:17 begins denying witnesses begins resisting turning over documents begins 7:23 suddenly saying 7:24 we've lost lowest learners emails wonder a one yr don't expect a government 7:30 agency to actually keep 7:31 records a females being said by senior government officials 7:37 we destroyed the hard drives 7:41 I have to say 7:45 richard nixon's ghost 7:50 must've been smiling at that protestations 7:53 tricky dick understood well 7:56 destroying emails in his day 7:59 it was a racing tape but it was much the same we should expect accountability 8:06 from our government 8:07 and we should expect to now 8:12 the extent to which the federal government continues 8:17 to target knows who appear to be the political enemies 8:22 the president there is a reason there is a growing hue and cry across this 8:30 country 8:30 to abolish the IRS altogether 8:35 parted it is simply the abuses are the tax code the burdens on job creation the 8:42 burdens on people struggling to achieve the American dream 8:45 part of it is the complexity that nobody it seems understand fully what the tax 8:51 code says 8:52 even those with advanced professional training have to hire specialized 8:57 accountants to keep up 8:58 with the bast complexity but the real reason why more and more Americans in 9:03 all 50 states are saying enough is enough 9:06 is we should not have a federal government agency that becomes 9:11 on Intimidator going after citizens going after citizen groups 9:16 violating their first amendment right 9:19 no politician has the right 9:23 to use the machinery of the executive branch to target 9:27 their political enemies when richard nixon did it was wrong 9:31 any rightly resigned from the presidency in disgrace 9:35 for his abuse power 9:39 I'm reminded noted liberal constitutional law professor 9:44 jonathan turley who voted 9:48 for President Obama in 2008 is no conservative 9:52 and yet professor turley is told congress 9:55 that President Obama has become 9:59 the embodiment of the imperial presidency that Barack Obama has becom 10:04 the president that richard milhouse nixon always wished he could be 10:10 this hearing 10:14 is about ensuring accountability at the IRS both for past misconduct that 10:21 continues 10:22 to be covered up to be stonewall that continues to lack 10:27 any accountability 10:30 and also for current and future practice to answer the question what is happening 10:34 today 10:37 right now who is being targeted 10:41 by the Obama IRS is it limited 10:45 to 501 c3 and c4 group or is it targeted individuals 10:52 I cannot tell you how many individuals across this country as I travel the 10:55 country 10:56 relay stories 10:59 that's a you know I got involved in the last election the 2012 election i 11:04 supported I raise money for Mitt Romney I raise money for Rick Perry I raise 11:07 money for some Republican candidate 11:09 and I'd been in business 20 30 40 years I've never been audited 11:14 as soon as my name was published in the papers within months the tax man comes 11:20 knocking 11:20 now one or two anecdotal stories does not prove a pattern 11:24 but it's incumbent on the senate 11:28 it's incumbent on Congress to ask is there a pattern 11:32 if the IRS 11:35 has become a partisan arm at the Democratic National Committee 11:40 there can be no stronger argument for ending the IRS as we know it 11:45 so that no administration democrat or republican 11:49 can use the IRS to target its political opponents 11:52 if a Republican president did this is richard nixon tried 11:57 I can assure you I would every be every bit as loud 12:02 and clear that it is an abuse of power 12:06 and for a democratic administration to do this and a fine 12:11 democratic defenders have this abuse the power 12:14 is profoundly dangerous to liberty 12:19 that is the basis for the incredible miracle we call the United States of 12:24 America