Skip to content
Subscriber Only
Politics

Ted Cruz Leads the New Conservative Crusade Against the IRS

Blocking the tax agency's political speech rules.
WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 28: Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) (R) escorts Loretta Lynch back from a lunch break as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) (L) sits nearby during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee January 28, 2015 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. If confirmed by the full Senate Ms. Lynch will succeed Eric Holder as the next U.S. Attorney General.

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 28: Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) (R) escorts Loretta Lynch back from a lunch break as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) (L) sits nearby during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee January 28, 2015 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. If confirmed by the full Senate Ms. Lynch will succeed Eric Holder as the next U.S. Attorney General.

Photographer: Mark Wilson/Getty Images
By

Though the first day of Loretta Lynch's AG hearings went as well as Democrats might have wanted, Senator Ted Cruz managed to steal the spotlight on an issue near and dear to the hearts of many conservatives: reforming the Internal Revenue Service. 

Lynch's most viral answer (in a bad way) during her questioning was her defense of the laws against marijuana use; that irritated the left, whose votes she's not in danger of losing. The questions about whether Lynch would defend the administration's executive actions on illegal immigration, which the right had telegraphed for months, were dodged without incident. But then Cruz asked Lynch if she'd appoint an attorney to independently investigate whether the IRS had targeted Americans over their political beliefs.