Experts tell Newsweek that repealing the funding for 87,000 IRS agents will make it easier for people to evade taxes.
Now that Kevin McCarthy has finally been elected House speaker, and a new congressional term sworn in, the GOP has already voted on one of its key promises made during last year’s midterm elections: to target the Internal Revenue Service.
In a 221 to 210 vote along party lines on Monday, House Republicans voted through the Family and Small Business Taxpayer Protection Act [H.R. 23] which aims to rescind $80 billion funding introduced in the Inflation Reduction Act.
Following years of the IRS demanding more funding from Congress, it was a Democrat-controlled House that finally granted its wish and provided the agency a funding boost over the next 10 years as part of the long-fought-for inflation bill which was passed in July.
It’s this funding that the GOP has vowed to target, warning that the money will be used to hire 87,000 new agents who will go after low and middle class families with audits.
In a speech after he was eventually elected House speaker, McCarthy vowed: « When we come back, our very first bill will repeal the funding for 87,000 IRS agents. We believe government should be to help you, not go after you. »
After the bill passed on Monday, McCarthy banged the gavel and stated « promises made, » prompting cheers and applause from the House Republicans.
The vow to target the IRS funding had also been made by a number of other prominent Republicans.
In August, Texas Senator Ted Cruz sought to remove an amendment from the bill which would scrap the funding for a « new army of IRS agents » who are poised not to « audit billionaires or giant corporations » but instead « created to audit you. »
Stephen Miller, a former top White House aide to Donald Trump, also tweeted in October 2022 in response to a tweet from President Joe Biden noting how every Democrat voted for the Inflation Reduction Act, with the claim: « Yes, every Democrat voted to hire 87K new IRS agents to audit the middle class—instead of hiring Border Patrol agents to defend the middle class. »
A number of Republican midterm election candidates even ran campaign ads that quoted the 87,000 figure and the claim that it means more chances that low and middle-income families will be subjected to audits.
