House Republicans passed their first bill from the 118th Congress Monday night, voting along party lines to cut $71 billion from the IRS. The legislation will not be passed by the Democratic-controlled Senate, and President Biden said Monday he would veto the cuts if they somehow got to his desk. Ahead of the vote, the Congressional Budget Office said the legislation would increase the federal deficit by $114 billion over the next 10 years.
Democrats approved $80 million in IRS funding in the Inflation Reduction Act last year. The IRS says the money will be used to hire 87,000 new employees over the next 10 years, upgrade the agency’s aging technology and strengthen tax law enforcement for taxpayers earning more than $400,000 a year. Many of the 87,000 new IRS employees will work in customer service to answer taxpayer questions, the Biden administration says, and others would replace the 50,000 IRS agents expected to retire or retire in the coming years.
House Republicans pledged to prioritize cutting those funds, arguing they will be used to harass middle-class taxpayers and create “a ‘shadow army’ to take down small businesses with assault rifles.” The New York Times reports. “Our first-ever bill will revoke funding for 87,000 new IRS agents,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said Saturday morning, shortly after being elected speaker on the 15th ballot. “You see, we think the government should be there to help you, not go after you.”
Former IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig, a Republican appointed by former President Donald Trump, said last November that the new investments in his understaffed agency would make it “even less likely for honest taxpayers to hear from the IRS or receive a letter of scrutiny.” “. Treasury Department spokeswoman Ashley Schapitl said Monday that “the IRS is auditing nearly 80 percent fewer millionaires than it did a decade ago,” and that the bill “would deny the agency much-needed resources to hire top talent to go after the $163 billion in taxes incurred by the top 1 percent annually.”
“The only way House Republicans can make it even clearer that they are favoring wealthy tax evaders is to come out and say it in those exact words,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. “This bill isn’t going anywhere in the Senate.”
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