Speaker Kevin McCarthy fulfilled the first of many promises he has made in the pursuit of a conservative, America-first agenda, with the House voting Monday night to cut back funding for the Internal Revenue Service.
The Republican-led House of Representatives voted to rescind more than $70 billion in funding to the IRS in furtherance of McCarthy’s first-day pledge to prevent the hiring of 87,000 new IRS employees who one of the bill’s sponsors argued would be tasked with raising revenue to pay for the radical left’s Green New Deal priorities.
The “Family and Small Business Taxpayer Protection Act,” sponsored by U.S. Reps. Adrian Smith, of Nebraska, and Michelle Steel of California, passed 221-210, and while it will roll back billions of dollars of funding for the IRS approved in the Inflation Reduction Act, it leaves in place funding for customer service and improvements to IT services, Fox News reported.
221-210: House along party lines passed legislation to rescind $80B of IRS funding. pic.twitter.com/eq7MXthmQQ
— Mayra Flores Vallejo (@MayraFloresTX34) January 10, 2023
The previous legislation secured $80 billion for the IRS over a 10-year period, with Fox News noting that “more than half of those funds approved with the intention of helping the agency to crack down on tax evasion.”
“The last thing the American people need right now are more audits from an out-of-control, bloated IRS,” Smith told the network ahead of Monday’s vote. “The Inflation Act funding for IRS would lead to the hiring of 87,000 new IRS employees tasked with raising enough revenue to pay for Democrats’ Green New Deal priorities.”
Calling that “unacceptable,” Smith said their bill “leaves in place funding for customer service and IT improvements because IRS is in desperate need of reform, but it protects middle-class families from audits they cannot afford.”
The House just approved its first bill: "repealing IRS funding."
Speaker Kevin McCarthy said after banging the gavel "Promises Made." pic.twitter.com/BBrjuSamzd
— Real Mac Report (@RealMacReport) January 10, 2023
The congressman’s office rejected a Congressional Budget Office score of the bill that said it would increase the debt by $114 billion over a decade.
“Congressional Democrats and the Biden administration have made clear that up to 90% of their new audits will target middle-class families and small businesses. This score again demonstrates the extent to which they are plundering working-class Americans in order to hand billions of dollars out to profitable businesses to buy electric trucks for their fleets, fuel for their airplanes and install large scale wind and solar across America’s landscapes,” a spokesperson for Smith’s office told Fox News.
The bill is not likely to move in the Senate and the White House has already said President Joe Biden would veto the legislation if it does reach his desk.
While the White House claims Republicans want to “allow the rich and multibillion-dollar corporations to skip out on their taxes,” U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., offered a different take in a tweet he shared Monday night:
This IRS recruiting program is “taking down a landscape business owner who failed to properly report how he paid for his vehicles,” not “taking down a billionaire who uses the corporate jet for private trips.”
Dems argue we need 87,000 new IRS employees!pic.twitter.com/QXlHmDBR6D
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) January 10, 2023
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Tom Tillison grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills. Tillison also contributes to BizPac Review.
Comment
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.