Republican Are Only Concerned About Israel At the Expense of the IRS
It isn’t about Israel. It’s about further enriching the billionaire class.
It’s no secret the republican party hates regulations because they threaten to cut into their morbidly rich donors’ profits.
This is why the GOP and its billionaire-funded right-wing hate media machine are pushing the lie that the provision in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to provide the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) $80 billion over ten years to ensure Americans making over $400,000 aren’t gaming the system is, in effect, “hiring another 87,000 armed IRS agents just to make sure that you obey.”
We’re not fooled.
It isn’t about reining in “big government”. It’s about making sure wealthy tax cheats can continue their grift for as much and as long as they can.
According to a Treasury Department watchdog report from two years ago, the IRS failed to collect more than $38.5 billion from taxpayers earning over $200,000 a year, and more than $2.4 billion from those with incomes over $1.5 million.
That was two years ago, half a year into the Biden administration.
Since the passing of the IRA, the IRS has already collected $160 million in back taxes. It also recently launched an initiative intended to crack down on large corporations’ tax evasions.
But republicans, of course, are having none of it.
So they have decided to use the war between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas as a pretext for defunding the IRS.
Last week, House republicans, under new leadership, passed the “Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2024,” tying $14 billion in military aid for Israel to $14.3 billion in IRS agency cuts.
Naturally, being the “party of fiscal responsibility,” republicans are taking to their favorite sycophantic media outlets to talk about how the cuts are “offsets” so we can afford to assist our staunch ally Israel.
Once again, though, their claim of “fiscal responsibility” rings hollow when we consider these “offsets” would add to the federal deficit in that they would deprive the IRS of resources to pursue rich tax dodgers costing the rest of us tens of billions in revenue.
Marc Goldwein of the conservative Center for a Responsible Federal Budget confirmed it when explained that “Every $1 you cut IRS funding will lose about $2 of revenue. So that means this bill would add about $30 billion to the deficit.”
https://twitter.com/MarcGoldwein/status/1719079522958553124
Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) tweeted:
Making it easier for rich people to cheat on their taxes isn’t an offset, it adds to the deficit. Just so we’re clear: House Republicans are using aid for Israel as a political pawn in order to slash taxes for their wealthy donors.
Ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, Rosa DeLauro, stated:
House Republicans are setting a dangerous precedent by suggesting that protecting national security or responding to natural disasters is contingent upon cuts to other programs.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz added:
Support for defending Israel should not come with conditions. When your neighbor’s house is on fire, you don’t haggle over the price of the garden hose.
It isn’t about Israel.
It’s about further enriching the billionaire class.
The bill has already failed in the Senate. Had it passed the Senate, President Biden vowed to veto it anyway.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said last Monday:
Politicizing our national security interests is a nonstarter. Demanding offsets for meeting core national security needs of the United States — like supporting Israel and defending Ukraine from atrocities and Russian imperialism — would be a break with the normal, bipartisan process and could have devastating implications for our safety and alliances in the years ahead.
Conspicuously absent from the bill is needed aid to Ukraine, something many republicans have been trying to axe since Russian dictator Vladimir Putin launched his unprovoked invasion of the largest European democracy nearly two years ago.
Mass. Rep. Jim McGovern explained the bill’s glaring omission of Ukraine funding means “Vladimir Putin is happy. I’m always amazed at how my friends on the other side of the aisle fall over each other to make Vladimir Putin happy. Well, he’s happy with the package you’re bringing to the floor today with no aid for any other national security priorities the president has asked for.”
Christian nationalist House Speaker Mike Johnson apparently thinks Israel is part of the United States since he tried defending depriving Ukraine of further assistance when he said:
We’re not just gonna print money and send it overseas. Because the other concern that we have that is overriding this is our own strength as a nation, which is tied to our fiscal stability. And that’s a big problem that we have as well. We have to keep it in mind as we try to help everyone else.
Sending money to Israel isn’t sending it overseas?
Nice try, GOP.
You’re fooling no one.
Well…almost no one.
You still have the MAGAts and myriad right-wing hate media devotees.