Former GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan has released his first television ad in his race for re-election, heavily criticizing the Internal Revenue Service for incompetence and evasion.
In the 30-second ad entitled
"Audit," the Wisconsin congressman slams the agency for its loss of employee emails which Congress had requested in its investigation into the targeting scandal.
"The IRS tells you to hang on to seven years of your personal tax information, but they can’t even keep six months of employee emails. It's time to clean house at the IRS," Ryan says in the ad.
He also calls for a wholesale reform of the tax code to be fair, simple, and competitive, advocating for the elimination of loopholes, lower tax rates, and jobs creation, which he says will make life easier for taxpayers.
Ryan concludes the hard-hitting ad by saying, "I'm Paul Ryan. And I may get audited for approving this message, but it would be worth it."
Ryan is chairman of the House Budget Committee and serves on the Ways and Means Committee, which is
leading the investigation into the IRS. During hearings this summer, Ryan made headlines for blasting IRS Commissioner John Koskinen for the excuses the agency gave over the missing emails, calling them "unbelievable."
"We've got to get to the bottom of it and we've got to hold people accountable so that it doesn't happen again," Ryan recently told
Newsmax TV.
"This isn't about a witch hunt and about settling scores, this is about getting government right, in its respectful role, so that the citizen [whom] the government is supposed to work for has confidence in their own government. Right now, they don't."
Recent polls indicate that he would be among the most popular candidates if he chose to
run for president in 2016. A CNN/ORC poll released last month put Ryan in second place behind former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee among a wide field of possible candidates.
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