Senator John Cornyn Calls for IRS Commissioner to Resign After Attacks on Tea Party Groups
Earlier this week, TexasGOPVote reported on the attacks on King Street Patriots and True the Vote by the Internal Revenue Service and other federal agencies under what appears to be a high level coordinated effort to harass and deny services to groups because of their political views. If this is not the tyranny that President Obama asked college graduates to ignore, I dont know what is.
King Street Patriots (KSP), and Catherine Engelbrecht personally, were attacked by what appears to be a coordinated inter-agency blitz. After being in business for over twenty years without ever being audited, after applying for 501c4 status, suddenly KSP, Catherine and her business were audited by agencies including OSHA, EPA, BATFE, TCEQ and others. This is clearly not the work of some mid-level bureaucrat. It would take a very high level Administration official to coordinate such an attack and issue marching orders against groups like this.
Yesterday, Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn (R-TX) took to the Senate floor to condemn the actions of acting commissioner Steven Miller and call for his resignation. Following is his speech from the Senate floor and a transcript of this message. Later today I will be on a call with the Senator on this topic and will bring you the results from that conversation. This is a very serious matter that calls for much more than resignations of department chiefs. It is time for prosecutions and for the U.S. House of Representatives to seek appropriate remedies.
TRANSCRIPT OF SPEECH:
“And they were concerned that the activities of the Internal Revenue Service seemed excessive, unreasonable, and improper. They feared the government officials were targeting them for doing nothing more than exercising their constitutional rights under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.
“So I did what I think any Senator would do, any member of Congress: I wrote a letter to the Internal Revenue Service and I asked them, first of all, about any indication they had that -- that this was the case. And Douglas Shulman, the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, testified later before Congress and categorically denied that any type of targeting was, in fact, taking place.
“Well, last Friday we learned that my constituents were correct and the Internal Revenue Service is wrong. It turns out the Internal Revenue Service really was targeting American citizens for exercising their most fundamental rights. And even though the Internal Revenue Service did not acknowledge this until last Friday, the Associated Press has reported that senior agency officials learned about the abuses as early as June 2011, nearly two years ago.
“Let me be clear. These abuses are not simply inappropriate, theyre a breach of faith with the American people and they are potentially violations of our criminal law. Now, as my friend from Vermont knows, if the IRS, if the government can target conservative groups, like the King Street Patriots and the Tea Party, they can target anybody, anywhere across the political spectrum. Thats why youre seeing such bipartisan outrage over this news.
“But not only was the IRS targeting Tea Party groups, they were targeting other people based on their advocacy of restoring the federal government to its basic constitutional framework. People concerned about government spending. Meanwhile, theres evidence that the IRS also in some cases targeted Jewish organizations as well. I would hope we would all on a bipartisan basis rise up and say, this is unacceptable and its immoral. Its the kind of behavior we associate not with the greatest democracy in the world but with corrupt tin-pot dictators. President Obama has said, to his credit, that all guilty parties will be held fully accountable. Well, I wish I could take some comfort from the Presidents comments.
“Unfortunately, this Administration has repeatedly stonewalled and misled U.S. officials investigating programs like the Fast and Furious gun walking scandal and the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya. The President of the United States got four “Pinnochios” today from the fact checker in The Washington Post. Thats got to be a first. So why should we expect the Internal Revenue Service investigation to be any different?
“Unfortunately, this Administration has shown a tendency to put politics ahead of the rule of law too many times. For example, during the government-run Chrysler bankruptcy process, the companys secured bondholders received much less for their loans than did the United Autoworkers pension funds –a favorite of the Obama Administration. As Solyndra was going bankrupt, the Administration violated the law by making taxpayers subordinate to private lenders so the taxpayers got gored first before private lenders were at risk.
“Last year, the Administration made unconstitutional recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board and to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. And last year, the Administration illegally waived key requirements of the 1996 welfare reform law. Finally, to help implement Obamacare, the IRS has announced that it will violate the text of the law and issue health insurance subsidies through federal exchanges, something Congress did not authorize. The law clearly states that these subsidies are not available to the federal exchange but only to the state-based-exchanges.
“Indeed, its the case that the Presidents health care law will dramatically expand the power of the Internal Revenue Service because the agency is responsible for implementing so much of Obamacares most important provisions. Well, given what weve learned about IRS malfeasance, does that really sound like a good idea, to give them more responsibility, to hire more agents before we get to the bottom of the present scandal? Do we really want the IRS to administer a law that will affect one-sixth of our economy, as Obamacare will? And do we really want the Internal Revenue Service agents collecting so much personal information about millions of American citizens?
“Even before Obamacare became the law, the IRS had more than enough power to destroy the lives of individual Americans. Chief Justice John Marshall at the very beginning of our country, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, said, ‘the power to tax involves the power to destroy.’ And those words are still true today.
“With trust in the federal government already at an all-time low, the IRS scandal will further diminish public confidence in public institutions and in Washington, D.C. As a result, this scandal will make it much harder for us to work together to adopt the fiscal policy and economic reforms that our country so desperately needs.
“When the IRS starts behaving like a rogue agent that considers itself above the law, weve entered truly dangerous territory.
“So, Mr. President, today I am going to join others of my colleagues to call on the acting IRS Commissioner, Steven Miller, to resign. If it is true what currently appears to be true - that Mr. Miller willfully misled Congress when inquiries were made earlier about this sort of scandalous political activity - he should resign today.
“Furthermore, Im encouraged actually by Chairman Max Baucus of the Senate Finance Committee and Senator Orrin Hatch, who said that they believe its important for the Finance Committee, as the appropriate standing committee of the Senate with jurisdiction over the Internal Revenue Service, to conduct an investigation.
“And I hope that the first witness they will call is the Treasury Secretary, Jack Lew, whos Mr. Millers direct reporting boss. I look forward to a thorough bipartisan investigation that will deliver justice to these government officials who betrayed the American people in such a shameful and egregious manner.”
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