Speaker of the House Mike Johnson told Maria Bartiromo Republicans want to "decrease the woke and weaponized federal government." He didn't mention holding Israel aid hostage to IRS funding cuts, however, or how that would benefit wealthy tax cheats.
During a friendly chat with Fox News' favorite "business reporter," Johnson declared Republicans are "haunted by the federal debt" and are working to decrease it.
Based upon the package he plans to introduce for Israel aid, that is a bald-faced lie and he should immediately repent and confess his sin to everyone. What Johnson and his gang of GOP goobers plan to do is to use Israel aid as a hostage to cut the IRS funding included in the Inflation Reduction Act. Funding which was paid for in the original legislation, since everything Pelosi passed was based on the PAYGO method.
The Washington Post reports that "the legislation, released by the House Rules Committee, calls for approving roughly $14 billion primarily in military aid to Israel and cutting about the same amount from the IRS budget."
This comes on the heels of some very interesting and encouraging reports about that IRS funding. Senator Ron Wyden released a shocking report that millionaires are failing to file their taxes at all, and owe somewhere in the neighborhood of $34 billion in back taxes. Even more shocking is the news that the IRS does not routinely go after wealthy non-filers. But for now, pay attention to that number -- $34 billion. That's enough to cover the Israel AND Ukraine aid packages.
In September, CBS reported that the IRS intended to take aim at 1600 wealthy taxpayers who owed $250,000 or more in back taxes, and that this effort was directly because of the additional funding in the Inflation Reduction Act.
This isn't "woke spending." This is fiscal responsibility. It's bad enough that the tax rates for the poor and middle class are going to jump in 2023, but it's downright insulting to discover that there are 1600 millionaires out there owing more than $250,000 in back taxes, without even figuring in what their current bill looks like.
The White House shot the idea down in a harsh statement Monday afternoon. "Threatening to undermine American national security unless House Republicans can help the wealthy and big corporations cheat on their taxes—which would increase the deficit—is the definition of backwards," Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre wrote.
What Mike Johnson and his House Republicans want to do is spare the poor millionaires from any close encounters with the IRS, and they're prepared to spend $14 billon to do that. Who's the big spender now?
Check out Scott Perry giggling about the choice they're making.
