"Why Not Just Be Honest?"

CNN anchor Jake Tapper repeatedly confronted Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) on Republicans’ misleading claims that Democrats are trying to fund an army of 87,000 IRS agents to hunt down everyday Americans.

“Why not just be honest?” Tapper asked Johnson at one point.

Days after House Republicans finally picked a speaker after a week-long standoff that culminated in a near fistfight on the chamber floor, the brand new GOP majority passed its first bill on Tuesday.

The legislation, which the White House has threatened to veto if it passes the Senate (it won’t), would revoke most of the funding to the Internal Revenue Service that was included in last year’s Inflation Reduction Act. year. The sweeping Climate, Tax, and Health Care Act allocated the IRS $80 billion over the next decade, much of it for tax enforcement.

Since last year, GOP lawmakers and right-wing media outlets have been pushing the “zombie claim” that the Biden administration plans to unleash 87,000 IRS agents on the American public with this funding. The basis for this falsehood lies in a 2021 Treasury report on how the White House could better collect unpaid taxes, which included a chart showing that $80 billion in new funding could allow the agency to employ 86,852 full-time employees in service in the next ten years.

Meanwhile, fact-checkers have endlessly pointed out that even if the new IRS funding was only for hiring new employees (it’s not), most of them wouldn’t be “agents” checking and scrutinizing tax returns. Also, most of the new staff would replace existing ones, as the IRS estimates it “will have to replace more than 50,000 employees lost to attrition over the next six years.”

During an interview with Johnson Tuesday afternoon, Tapper noted that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that the Republicans’ bill to defund the IRS would add more than $100 billion to the deficit over the next decade.

“You supported the House bill we just discussed,” the CNN anchor said. “It would withdraw billions of dollars from the IRS. You tweeted, you’re going to vote to stop the 87,000 IRS agents from going after families. That is not true. They would be employees, not agents.”

After Johnson claimed that “only in the bizarre world of Washington” a spending-eliminating bill would add money to the budget, Tapper explained that the legislation would eliminate taxation of high-net-worth individuals and companies.

However, Johnson claimed that the “purpose of hiring all these new cops” is to go after “hard-working families and small businesses,” prompting Tapper to grill him at his repeated talking point.

“These are not Republican talking points,” Johnson insisted, citing the assessment of the Treasury report by the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation. “We do not agree. We have a different agenda.”

A stunned Tapper replied, “But I quoted the CBO and you went after them! They are also impartial.”

Johnson claimed the CBO “doesn’t have a lot of credibility right now” before demanding more transparency, leading the CNN anchor to corner the Louisiana legislator.

“I mean, well, I’m just saying. Why not just be honest about what the bill would actually do? Tapper wondered.

“I’m honest!” exclaimed Johnson.

“You said 87,000 IRS agents. It’s not,” the veteran CNN host replied.

“Jake, that’s exactly what it is,” the Republican congressman stated confidently. “That’s the Treasury’s own published report in 2021 that they said, as you noted, over a ten-year period they wanted to add 86,000-and-so –“

“Employees! Not agents. Employees,” Tapper interjected.

“Jake, do you know what all those positions will be? Have you seen the analysis?” Johnson deviated.

“So you’re saying each of the 86,000-plus is going to be an IRS agent?” Tapper shot back.

“No. I’m not saying every one of them, but I’m saying that a large percentage of them will be employees who are considered agents to go after audits and conduct audits,” Johnson admitted, contradicting his earlier claims. “That’s a big, very important function of the IRS. That’s not an exaggeration. That’s what it says on paper.”

Amid CNN boss Chris Licht’s more mediocre approach of late, Republicans and conservatives have been flocking to CNN lately. During the House drama last week, at least 42 GOP House members appeared on the network labeling former President Donald Trump as “fake news.”