With Bidenomics a focal point of the president’s re-election strategy, a recent report “blew up the narrative” on a campaign promise from the previous cycle about increases in federal taxes.
As conservatives have pushed back on expanded bureaucracy in Washington, D.C. and a weaponized government striving to bring in 87,000 new IRS agents, President Joe Biden, the “architect” behind current economic woes, has painted himself as a friend of low- and middle-income Americans.
However, a review of the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration’s (TIGTA) report on examining high-income taxpayers debased a promise to not increase federal taxes by “a single penny” from the Democratic Party head.
Far from forgotten, Biden spoke to that promise in September when he offered remarks on Bidenomics at Prince George’s Community College in Largo, Maryland and said in part, “We ought to make the tax code more fair, not less fair. That’s why I promised that no one making under $400,000 — who had never seen that — but no one making under $400,000 will see their federal taxes go up a single penny.”
“I’ve kept that promise, and I will keep it,” he assured.
The following day, IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel announced that expanded efforts to audit higher-income Americans would be met with the hiring of 3,700 new employees. “These new employees will be focused on higher-income and complex tax areas like partnerships, not average taxpayers making less than $400,000.”
The catch, according to the TIGTA report, was that “there is no way to identify the complete population of taxpayers that meet the criterion of $400,000 or more.”
Speaking with Fox News Digital, Americans for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist contended the IG’s findings “blew up the narrative” that Democrats only intended on taxing the rich and, further, they’ve been “knowingly lying” on that front.
Noting that Senate Democrats had opposed an amendment to the so-called Inflation Reduction Act introduced by Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo (R) to legally prohibit new audits of taxpayers making under $400,000 annually, Norquist remarked, “They have to convince the majority of Americans when they say they’re going to raise taxes, it doesn’t mean you. House Republicans should subpoena the audits to rub their nose in it and keep exposing the lie.”
America declines as the elites remain in denial https://t.co/YMv5OavHPD pic.twitter.com/lmXs4J0N4M
— BPR (@BIZPACReview) August 1, 2022
According to the report, “Currently, the high-income terminology is being used loosely inside the IRS with no common understanding of what the term means. At a minimum, the IRS should accept the Treasury Secretary’s $400,000 directive as the new high-income floor on which IRS leadership can focus enforcement efforts.”
“The Tax Reform Act of 1976 required annual publication of data on individual income tax returns reporting income of $200,000 or more. The current examination activity code schema still uses $200,000 as the main threshold,” it explained.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen had reportedly instructed then-IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig in a letter after the act was signed into law that “small business or households earning $400,000 per year or less will not see an increase in the chances that they are audited.”
A spokesperson for the federal agency told Fox News Digital despite the imprecise terminology, “The IRS is not increasing the audit rate on those earning less than $400,000. The IRS is focused on pursuing high-income earners, partnerships, large corporations, and promoters abusing the nation’s tax laws. The recommendation in the TIGTA report has no bearing on the IRS’s implementation of Secretary Yellen’s directive.”
Norquist added that Democrats will gaslight on new batch of agents, but disregard reports when tens of thousands more agents are brought in. “For early hiring, 3,000 new agents don’t seem too scary considering about 87,000 new agents will likely be hired. But it allows them to tell their left-wing friends they are doing something. Don’t expect an announcement for later hiring binges.”
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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