'We need to abolish the IRS': Conservative firebrand Ted Cruz launches political convention with direct assault on U.S. tax authority

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Cruz is a Texas senator and likely presidential candidate
He wants to replace the IRS with a smaller agency that would collect postcard-sized income tax returns based on a flat tax rate
Cruz also wants to 'repeal every word of Obamacare'
President Obama said on Super Bowl Sunday that there was 'not a smidgen of corruption' in an IRS scandal involving the targeting of tea party groups
'You keep on using this word,' Cruz retorted, channeling a character from The Princess Bride. 'I do not think it means what you think it means.'

By David Martosko, U.s. Political Editor

PUBLISHED: 09:58 EST, 6 March 2014 | UPDATED: 14:16 EST, 6 March 2014

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Ted Cruz, the rock-ribbed conservative Texas senator who figures to be a factor in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, told thousands of conservatives Thursday morning that the IRS should go the way of the dodo.

'We need to abolish the IRS,' he said, calling instead for a flat income tax rate and a user-friendly tax return that can be filed on a postcard.

That verbal gauntlet, thrown as much at a near-century of tax collection as at the Obama administration, was Cruz's biggest applause line.

'By virtue of your being here today,' he jokingly cautioned the nation's largest annual gathering of politically conservative activists, 'tomorrow each and every one of you is going to be audited by the IRS.'

On Wednesday the former IRS official in charge of vetting nonprofit groups that seek tax-exempt charitable status refused, for the second time, to tell a congressional committee what she knew about the scandal.

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Sen. Ted Cruz, the conservative pit bull who will likely run for president in 2016, demanded the abolition of the Internal Revenue Service on Thursday

Fear of government is a unifying concept at CPAC, wth Ted Cruz leading the charge to de-fang Washington's ability to use the tax code as a weapon

Lois Lerner claimed the Constitution's Fifth Amendment afforded the right to remain silent, despite a party-line ruling from the House Oversight Committee that she waived that privilege by offering a lengthy opening statement in a May 2013 hearing.

More than 200 right-wing organizations, mostly those linked to the tea party movement, sat in limbo for as many as three years while the IRS dithered and held them up during two election cycles.

The agency is now moving toward new regulations that would allow it to codify the secret rules it used to screen out conservative organizations while quickly green-lighting liberals.

More...

During a Super Bowl Sunday interview with Fox News Channel host Bill O'Reilly, President Barack Obama insisted that there was 'not even a smidgen of corruption' in his administration related to the controversy.

Channeling a character in the 1987 cult classic movie The Princess Bride, Cruz mocked the president for his choice of words.

'You keep on using this word,' he said, referring to 'smidgen.'

'I do not think it means what you think it means.'

The Conservative Political Action Conference, held near Washington, D.C. in suburban Maryland, will host a cavalcade of right-wing speakers, many of whom are likely to run for president in 2016.

In his own back yard: President Barack Obama is under withing attacks as the annual Conservative Political Action Conference gets underway near Washington, D.C.

The Conservative Political Action Conference brings together a mishmash of military and foreign policy hawks, evangelical Christians, college Republican activists, campaign strategists and media organizations every year

Cruz seemed to be tightening and road-testing a stump speech himself, advocating for the repeal of the Dodd-Frank banking law, safeguards to buttress the Second Amendment's gun rights, expanding school choice, permanently banning former members of Congress from lobbying their old colleagues, instituting term limits for federal legislators, and
auditing the Federal Reserve.

That line drew a rousing shout from acolytes of former Texas Rep. Ron Paul, a one-time perennial presidential candidate whose libertarian following has picked up with Paul's son, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, right where it left off.

Ted Cruz to CPAC: Let's abolish the IRS

Cruz knows that he must appeal to that subset of the Republican Party, which opposes government surveillance programs as well as centralized control of the U.S. money supply.

He asked everyone in the audience with a cell phone to 'please leave them on. I want to make sure President Obama hears everything I have to say.'

But the Republican party's more traditional conservatives are his meat and potatoes crowd.

Leading off the first day of the CPAC convention, he nearly brought a giant ballroom to its feet with a demand that Congress must 'repeal every single word of Obamacare.'

Former IRS official Lois Lerner (L) refused Wednesday to answer questions from Congress about the tea party targeting scandal; Pennsylvania Sen. Patrick Toomey (R) said Thursday that Americans 'need to stand up to a president who don't think the laws of America apply to him'

Piggybacking on conservative disgust with the Obama administration's steady stream of alterations to the Affordable Care Act's legislated series of deadlines, Cruz took a direct pot-shot at the occupant of the Oval Office.

'If you have a president who is picking and choosing which laws to follow and which laws to ignore, you no longer have a president,' said Cruz.

Pennsylvania Sen. Patrick Toomey followed him at the podium with a similar slam. 'We need to stand up to a president who don't think the laws of America apply to him,' Toomey told the crowd.

CPAC's attendees are disproportionately young, with College Republicans chapters and church youth groups appearing Thursday morning by the hundreds.

'Millions have lost hope,' Cruz told them, 'because under president Obama, the American dream is harder and harder to achieve. ... If you were to sit down and design a plan to hammer the living daylights out of young people, you couldn't do better than the Obama economic plan.'

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MedicineBowCO, Longmont CO USA, 38 minutes ago

I don't care what anyone else says. Cruz is the guy. The IRS has become a political bludgeon or brass knuckles to pound the decent and honest citizens into fear and submission to big government.

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JohnB, Dallas, United States, 39 minutes ago

We need to abolish the income tax along with the IRS. It's time for the Fair Tax.

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Jersey Fatmouth, Harrison, 54 minutes ago

Typical European Leftists labeling him "Firebrand" . Why? Because he wants to get back to Constitutionalism?

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Blessed observer, Here and there, United States, 56 minutes ago

We don't believe the lies anymore. I will never vote Democrat again! The last 2 years is the worst we've ever done. I have relatives who have no job. 93 million unemployed. The USA is weak and sad now. Our family didn't have all these problem when Reagan and Bush were in office. We have been lied to people I don't believe a thing now I'm told by one of Em. Wish I could take my Obama vote back.

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Neil Young, Cincinnati, United States, 1 hour ago

Cruz will be our next president...

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Tim Everett, Washington DC, United States, 6 minutes ago

No he won't. Ted Cruz is Canadian by birth. He was born in Calgary, Alberta Canada. Therefore he is ineligible to run for President. Sorry.

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La Billyboy, Los Angeles, United States, 1 hour ago

It really isn't about abolishing the IRS, it is abolishing the disgusting Federal Income Tax Code without which, the IRS becomes necessary or certainly much smaller. The use of the income tax as an instrument of social policy should stop, there are plenty of good ways to get the revenue needed to fund the legitimate functions of the Federal Government.

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LukeJohn, California, 1 hour ago

There are all sorts of options to clean up the tax issues. BUT We don't have a tax problem, we have a SPENDING problem (Republicans and Democrats are as guilty). Fix the latter and the tax issues become almost irrelevant.

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Blessed observer, Here and there, United States, 1 hour ago

No ones buying your demoncratic lies any more the American people are smarter than that. We have figured our obamacare cost a smidgen too much and our deficits is off the charts and why does a person from the IRS want to strike a deal before she testifys. Hmmm maybe just maybe a whole lots of sneakiness has been in the works. The Demoncrats are trying to make me their voting slave with all their free stuff. Nothing is free in this world and sooner or later they're gonna collect. I want my freedom Back!

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chumchingee, huber, 1 hour ago

I think we need to veto just about every expensive program the government currently has operating and paid for by the income tax. The first thing to go is operating without funds to pay for the programs that the government is supporting like foreigh aid. Then we need an efficient way of collecting taxes. Instead of an income tax how about a sales tax on anything that is purchased with a real close watch on the budget. Then we need a tariff on anything coming into the country from laborers abroad. They do not pay income tax on their wages to us so why should they get a break that our businesses do not? We need to even the playing field so that our businesses compete with theirs on an equal basis. Also we need a fair law so that our jobs are not shipped over seas by corporations. That needs to be a priority even over changing the tax laws. Too many corporations are me me me and the hell with everyone else. So it is time to take America back for Americans.