Now that Kevin McCarthy has finally been elected House speaker, and a new congressional term sworn in, the GOP has already voted on one of its key promises made during last year's midterm elections: to target the Internal Revenue Service.
In a 221 to 210 vote along party lines on Monday, House Republicans voted through the Family and Small Business Taxpayer Protection Act [H.R. 23] which aims to rescind $80 billion funding introduced in the Inflation Reduction Act.
Following years of the IRS demanding more funding from Congress, it was a Democrat-controlled House that finally granted its wish and provided the agency a funding boost over the next 10 years as part of the long-fought-for inflation bill which was passed in July.
It's this funding that the GOP has vowed to target, warning that the money will be used to hire 87,000 new agents who will go after low and middle class families with audits.
In a speech after he was eventually elected House speaker, McCarthy vowed: "When we come back, our very first bill will repeal the funding for 87,000 IRS agents. We believe government should be to help you, not go after you."
After the bill passed on Monday, McCarthy banged the gavel and stated "promises made," prompting cheers and applause from the House Republicans.
The vow to target the IRS funding had also been made by a number of other prominent Republicans.
In August, Texas Senator Ted Cruz sought to remove an amendment from the bill which would scrap the funding for a "new army of IRS agents" who are poised not to "audit billionaires or giant corporations" but instead "created to audit you."
Stephen Miller, a former top White House aide to Donald Trump, also tweeted in October 2022 in response to a tweet from President Joe Biden noting how every Democrat voted for the Inflation Reduction Act, with the claim: "Yes, every Democrat voted to hire 87K new IRS agents to audit the middle class—instead of hiring Border Patrol agents to defend the middle class."
Yes, every Democrat voted to hire 87K new IRS agents to audit the middle class — instead of hiring Border Patrol agents to defend the middle class. A crucial reason to vote out every single solitary Democrat. https://t.co/r2WdSNvURP
— Stephen Miller (@StephenM) October 10, 2022
A number of Republican midterm election candidates even ran campaign ads that quoted the 87,000 figure and the claim that it means more chances that low and middle-income families will be subjected to audits.
However, Democrats and other groups have said that the GOP's claims are misleading, and that the 87,000 figure is not going to be used to recruit an army of new auditing agents.
Instead, it will contain other agency workers as well as bring in much needed new software to help with filing and customer service.
Experts said the new hires will also be replacing the tens of thousands employees who are expected to quit or retire over the upcoming years.
Democrats have also argued that the new IRS funding is needed to target the rich and corporations for not paying their full taxes, rather than go after average American citizens, who will remain unlikely to be audited.
"Defunding the IRS is an attack on tax enforcement and the fairness of our entire tax system," Amy Hanauer, executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), told Newsweek.
"It would make it easier for wealthy Americans and profitable corporations to evade taxes, eroding the integrity of our tax code while reducing the revenue lawmakers have available to invest in the American people," she said.
The ITEP also argued that the recent criticism of the IRS and its failure to audit Trump during his first two years of presidency, as revealed in the release of his tax returns, is proof that it desperately needs new funding and reform.
One major hurdle for the Republican Party and its plans to target IRS funding is the likelihood of any attempt to rescind the money succeeding.
Despite the GOP-controlled House voting to pass the Family and Small Business Taxpayer Protection Act on Monday, it will almost certainly fail to clear the Democrat-controlled Senate.
Biden could also use his veto powers to block any attempts for the GOP to dissect his Inflation Reduction Act, which he considers one of the biggest accomplishments of his presidency so far.
Tony Reardon, national president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said that the GOP plans to target the new IRS funding is "short-sighted and destructive" as well as being a "stunt" which is destined to fail.
"But that doesn't make it any less startling that new House leaders are willing to mislead the American people about how the money is going to be spent," Reardon told Newsweek. "As the fact-checkers have been reporting for months, the IRS is not adding 87,000 new agents to audit regular Americans.
"In fact, the agency stands to lose 52,000 current employees over the next five years to regular retirement and attrition, and the Treasury Department has ordered that initial hiring be focused on reinforcing the depleted corps of customer service representatives who answer the phones or meet with taxpayers every day."
Reardon said that the Treasury has also "made clear" that the new IRS funding will not be used to increase audits of small businesses or households earning less than $400,000 a year.
"The American people will see clearly from this debate that the only people who benefit from an underfunded and understaffed IRS are the wealthy and anyone who wants to cheat the system," Reardon said.
On Monday, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that the Family and Small Business Taxpayer Protection Act would raise the deficit by around $114 billion.
The Biden administration condemned the "reckless" bill passed by the House Republicans while stating the deficit increase the bill is estimated to bring in will be caused by "enabling wealthy tax cheats" to engage in additional tax fraud and avoidance.
The Office of Management and Budget said in a statement after the vote: "Far from protecting middle-class families or small businesses, H.R. 23 protects wealthy tax cheats at the expense of honest middle-class taxpayer.
"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."
It is not just the IRS that the GOP wants to target now they have control of the House.
The party also promised to use subpoena powers to go after what they refer to as the "weaponization" of the federal government by the Biden administration.
Elsewhere in his speech after being elected House speaker, McCarthy promised the GOP will set up committees to "hold the swamp accountable, from the withdrawal of Afghanistan, to the origins of COVID and to the weaponization of the FBI."
"Let me be very clear. We will use the power of the purse and the power of the subpoena to get the job done," McCarthy said.
The party is also said to be planning on launching a new special subcommittee to investigate the FBI and Department of Justice's criminal probes into Trump, reportedly headed by expected new chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Jim Jordan.
About the writer
Ewan Palmer is a Newsweek News Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on US politics, domestic policy ... Read more