In the wake of a series of scandals that have plagued the Obama Administration, Texas Senator Ted Cruz released a statement asking if President Obama will “announce meaningful action on the IRS, NSA, economy, Benghazi and ObamaCare” during his State of the Union Address next week in our nation’s capital.
Shortly after the 2012 election cycle, news was released about a scandal regarding the IRS’s increased scrutiny of conservative non-profit organizations like Catherine Engelbrecht’s King Street Patriots and True the Vote organizations.
Throughout the course of 2013, Members of Congress like Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA) attempted to investigate the IRS and the Obama administration to determine the extent and complicity of this scandal. Over the next several days leading up to the presidential address, Sen. Cruz will focus on this issue (and four others) and why it is important that the President provide answers to the American people, according to Sen. Cruz’ statement, released Wednesday, January 22, in Washington, D.C.
Later that same day, Sen. Cruz released an additional statement expanding on the first issue regarding the IRS scandal. In this statement, Sen. Cruz quoted a letter he wrote to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in which he stated, “Two hundred fifty-three days have passed since both you and President Obama professed outrage at the IRS’s wrongful conduct.” Sen. Cruz continued:
To date, no one has been indicted. And it has been reported that the FBI plans not to file any criminal charges. This is a sad state of affairs. The widespread perception of partisan bias, of manifest conflict of interest, besmirches the reputation of the Department of Justice. And it undermines confidence in rule of law.
Sen. Cruz went on in the letter to ask Attorney General Holder to personally demonstrate “the independence that so many of your predecessors have demonstrated, and to act to preserve the integrity of the Department of Justice and immediately appoint a special prosecutor, with meaningful independence, to investigate the IRS’s illegal targeting of conservative groups.”
He followed up the first question of an earlier press release, asking:
Will the President support the appointment of a special prosecutor to fully investigate the IRS’s illegal targeting of conservatives? The President should be eager to prove he has clean hands on this issue. He professed to be angry and outraged by the IRS abuse. Will he pledge to stop new IRS rules that restrict the free speech of non-profit groups?
Sen. Cruz concluded his statement on the IRS scandal by stating:
Americans currently have no assurances that the rule of law will be followed, that those responsible will be held accountable, or that illegal targeting of conservative groups will cease. The administration has the power to make these assurances and ensure it doesn’t happen again, yet recent actions prove the little regard it has for finding out the truth.
Following are the four additional questions Sen. Cruz will dive into over the next few days leading up to President Obama’s address to Congress, according to the January 22nd press release:
[1.] Will the President act to ensure that the privacy of law-abiding citizens is protected from unjustifiable violations by arms of the federal government such as the NSA, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Internal Revenue Service, and Department of Health and Human Services?
[2.] Will the President recognize that his economic policies have failed to create the millions of jobs that he promised and have, instead, reduced the labor force participation rate to its lowest level in decades? Will he commit to commonsense, job-creating policies such as the immediate authorization of the Keystone Pipeline, a moratorium on new regulations, and fundamental tax reform for every American?
[3.] Will the President call on Congress to form a Joint Select Committee to finally discover the truth of why four Americans perished in a preventable terrorist attack in Benghazi 16 months ago?
[4.] Will the President finally recognize that it was a mistake to ram through Obamacare on a party-line vote and that it is–right now–hurting millions of Americans? Will he take real responsibility for misleading the American people when he falsely promised “if you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan” and “if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor”? Will he acknowledge that he doesn’t have the power to unilaterally rewrite the health law for powerful favored interests such as big business and Congress? And will he finally work with Congress to repeal Obamacare and start over, adopting instead reforms that will make healthcare more personal, portable, and affordable?
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