Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.) was pulled up short Sunday with his griping about additional Internal Revenue Service agents when NBC’s Chuck Todd told him: “Just stop cheating on your taxes, Congressman.”
Republicans are trying to make a negative talking point of the Inflation Reduction Act’s $80 billion increase in IRS funding and 87,000 more agents over 10 years. But it seems to infuriate few, other than tax cheats.
“I just don’t get it,” Todd said on “Meet the Press,” referring to Republicans in a snit about the plans to crack down on tax scofflaws.
“A lot of Republicans have talked about dealing with waste, fraud and abuse. The current head of the IRS, who was a Trump appointee, said he didn’t have enough people, that the biggest problem we have is that people don’t pay their taxes that they’re supposed to pay,” Todd pointed out.
“If you’re upset about more IRS agents, just stop cheating on your taxes, Congressman,” Todd snapped, adding that he didn’t necessarily mean Barr in particular, but possibly other complaining lawmakers.
“Right, Chuck,” Barr replied, still smiling. “Everybody believes people should pay their taxes.” But Barr insisted that ”$20 billion of these audits are going to come at the expense of low and middle-income Americans.”
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen wrote to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig earlier this month: “Contrary to the misinformation from opponents of this legislation, small business or households earning $400,000 per year or less will not see an increase in the chances that they are audited.”
The increase in IRS spending is projected to be recouped by a big boost in revenue captured from tax cheats. It’s predicted to raise more than $700 billion in new revenue by cracking down on tax cheats, taxing stock buybacks and extending a cap on deductions for business losses.
Republicans were so eager to whip up fury about the IRS boost that Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) falsely insisted earlier this month that the agency was planning to deliberately target middle-income Americans. Grassley wildly claimed that IRS agents would be coming to Americans’ doors for audits armed with assault-style weapons.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) also falsely warned that a “new army of 87,000 IRS agents will be coming for you” if you “make $75,000 or less.”
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) responded in a statement that the “incendiary conspiracy theories Republicans are pushing about armed IRS agents are increasingly dangerous and out of control. High-ranking Republicans are saying shockingly irresponsible things,” he added.
“Given the social media chatter we’re already seeing, it’s all too easy to imagine individuals using these conspiracy theories as justification for violence against public servants and their families,” Wyden said in the statement.
