Senate Democrats Vote Unanimously To Kill Amendments to Protect Americans From IRS Abuses

This morning, Sen. Cruz offered two amendments in the Judiciary Committee to safeguard citizens’ free speech against unlawful and unjust targeting and designations by the Internal Revenue Service. 

He brought to light the disturbing hypocrisy of Democrats who all objected to the IRS’s abuses when the scandal first broke, but are now playing defense for the IRS.

“Free speech is not a partisan issue. The IRS has no business meddling with the First Amendment rights of Americans. Rather than further stifling free speech, the IRS and the Department of Justice should provide the American people with all the facts surrounding the IRS’s targeting of certain organizations based on their political activity. We should all agree the IRS should not be used as a tool for partisan warfare.”

Democrats on the Judiciary Committee unanimously defeated both of Cruz’s proposals.

Sen. Cruz’ first amendment would have prohibited an IRS employee from intentionally targeting individuals or groups based on political views. It would have made it a crime for an IRS employee to willfully discriminate against groups based solely on the political beliefs or policy statements held, expressed, or published by that organization.

The second amendment would have amended the tax code to use the bipartisan, independent FEC’s definitions to determine whether an organization is engaging in political activity. The IRS should focus on taxation, rather than determining what is political activity. 

 Let that sink in:  Democrats voted against making it illegal for the IRS to target and discriminate against Americans based on their political views, and for giving the abusive agency more power to discriminate against Americans based on their political views.

Whether you are a Republican or Democrat, you should find it troubling that every Democrat voted in lock-step against Cruz’s common sense amendments – and vote accordingly, this Fall.