Texas on the Potomac - TexMessage: Kevin Brady Wants "Thorough' Probe of IRS; Ted Cruz Justs Wants to Abolish It

News Article

By Nicole Narea

As congressional investigations continue, Texas conservatives Sen. Ted Cruz and Rep. Kevin Brady have taken to national television in recent days to unleash attacks on the beleaguered Internal Revenue Service.

At yesterday's House Ways and Means Committee hearing, representatives from six conservative organizations that were targeted by the IRS described their unnecessarily exhaustive application process for tax-exempt status. The IRS had requested their donor lists and required them to fill out detailed questionnaires, purposely delaying their applications by months.

In a Monday release, Sen. Ted Cruz condemned the IRS scandal as an example of the Obama administration's use of the "machinery of government to target political enemies" and a "manifestation of too much power in the federal government." Spearheading the charge for the abolishing the IRS, he proposed transitioning to a simple flat tax or the FAIR Tax, consumption tax on goods and services, on FOX News June 2.

"It ought to be just a simple, one-page postcard and take the agents, the bureaucracy out of government and limits the power of government," Cruz said on FOX News with Eric Bolling June 2.

Cruz added that he did "not remotely" trust the IRS with administering Obamacare in the coming months.

Meanwhile, Brady, who is a senior member of the Ways and Means Committee, previewed the hearing on Monday segments of FOX Business with Stuart Varney and FOX News with Sean Hannity. He said that the IRS's new acting commissioner Daniel Werfel did not take advantage of the opportunity to shed light on who initiated the investigations into conservative organizations and whether private taxpayer information detailed in the applications was illicitly shared.

"He's choosing to douse the flames rather than get the truth," Brady said of Werfel, pledging to a "thorough and deliberate" investigation of the IRS.

Brady livetweeted the hearing, continuing his criticism.

Source