Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade, a substitute host on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on Thursday, says there’s a new monster to be afraid of: the Internal Revenue Service.
Kilmeade discussed the roughly $80 billion in funding set aside in the Inflation Reduction Act for the IRS to crack down on wealthy tax avoiders. Although the allocation is expected to help generate over $120 billion, Kilmeade questioned any funding that would “supersize and weaponize” the IRS.
Kilmeade also claimed that President Joe Biden just wanted to hire more IRS agents and that a special agent position required someone to “carry a firearm and be willing to use deadly force, if necessary.”
“A little like James Bond, but instead of hunting down evil maniacs, these agents hunt down and kill middle-class taxpayers that don’t pay enough?” Kilmeade asked. “It’s Joe Biden’s new army.”
A Treasury Department official said the funding, which is meant to aid IRS enforcement for 10 years, would cover a wide range of positions, including auditors who would crack down on “corporate and high-income tax evaders,” Time reported.
On Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen sent a letter to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig urging the agency not to use any of the new funding to increase audits of Americans making less than $400,000 a year, CNN reported.
