January 10, 2023

Maybe these Republicans would have been happier if they'd done high school theater when they were kids, and gotten it all out of their systems. Because there's no way, no how they get to stop this IRS funding. They just have to be seen trying to stop it to make their donors happy! Via Politico:

The House voted 221-210 to claw back more than $70 billion — or nearly 90 percent — of new funding for the IRS, underscoring Republicans’ opposition to the agency expansion and a desire to keep tax enforcement issues in the public eye.

The legislation will certainly die in the Senate over staunch opposition from Democrats. But debate over the bill gives the GOP an opportunity to relitigate what the party views as one of the most unpopular provisions in Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act, which provided $80 billion in new funding to the IRS over 10 years to bolster a wide range of agency functions, including customer service, taxpayer assistance and criminal investigations.

“With their first economic legislation of the new Congress, House Republicans are making clear that their top economic priority is to allow the rich and multi-billion dollar corporations to skip out on their taxes, while making life harder for ordinary, middle-class families that pay the taxes they owe,” the Office of Management and Budget said in a statement promising a veto by President Joe Biden in the unlikely event it shows up on his desk.

This is a belt-and-suspenders situation. The Democratic Senate won't pass it -- but if they did (and they won't), Biden would veto it. So more playacting instead of actual governance.

Discussion

We welcome relevant, respectful comments. Any comments that are sexist or in any other way deemed hateful by our staff will be deleted and constitute grounds for a ban from posting on the site. Please refer to our Terms of Service for information on our posting policy.
Mastodon