Following a several-day-long battle over the speaker’s gavel, newly elected House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) says the first bill he wants to see passed is one that reduces funding for 87,000 new IRS agents.
“I know the night is late, but when we come back, our very first bill will repeal the funding for 87,000 new IRS agents,” McCarthy stated on January 7, just moments after being named speaker. McCarthy did not specify when the Republican-backed plan would be submitted on the House floor, but he did state that Republicans “believe government should be to help you, not go after you.”
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) has stated in a letter that Republicans will bring legislation to the House floor during the first two weeks of 2023. The Treasury Department predicted that a nearly $80 billion investment in the IRS in 2021 would allow the agency to hire approximately 86,852 full-time IRS employees (not agents) during the next decade.
However, the Republican National Committee and other Republican senators have questioned current IRS financing under the Inflation Reduction Act, which was passed by both chambers of Congress in 2022. They claim that the IRS will target Americans with more and more audits in order to support huge spending bills just passed by Congress.
In 2022, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen stated that extra funds will allow the agency to upgrade and transition away from obsolete computer systems, an over-reliance on paper files, and an over-reliance on paper mail. Meanwhile, the funds will allow the IRS to focus on improving tax law enforcement against corporations and rich Americans.
“The Inflation Reduction Act finally provides the funding to transform the IRS into a 21st-century agency,” Yellen remarked in September 2022.
VISIT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNELRepublicans have a majority in the House, but not in the Senate, which is split 51-49. The effort to rescind the recent IRS funding could face opposition in the Senate, and President Joe Biden could move to veto the GOP’s proposal.
“As speaker of the House, my ultimate responsibility is not to my party, my conference, or even our Congress,” McCarthy remarked after being elected. “My responsibility, our responsibility, is to our country.”
McCarthy also stated that Republicans would address the “rise of the Chinese Communist Party” and the nation’s mounting debt. “As for the Chinese Communist Party, we will create a bipartisan select committee on China to investigate how to bring back the hundreds of thousands of jobs that went to China, and then we will win this economic competition.”
McCarthy committed to key concessions before being elected to secure a position second in line to the Oval Office behind Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, including a measure that allows any of the 435 House members to call a vote on his removal at any moment.
Republican performance in the November 2022 elections left them with a tight 222-212 majority, providing numerous conservative MPs the opportunity to oppose McCarthy’s bid. They accused him of being too soft and susceptible to negotiating with Biden and the Democrats.
“We do not trust Mr. McCarthy with power, because we know who he will use it for. And we are concerned that it will not be for the American people,” stated Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) last week.
McCarthy, on the other hand, dismissed claims that dealing with those Republicans would erode his power. “That gives me no problem or concern whatsoever,” McCarthy told reporters, describing his deal with critics as a “very good” agreement that “empowers the members.”
Former President Donald Trump apparently relied on several Republican holdouts during the vote, while continually urging Republicans to support McCarthy. Gaetz responded, saying, “I love President Trump, I defended him a great deal in Congress, but HR wasn’t always his strong suit.”
Gaetz went on to say that several of Trump’s Cabinet nominees, including past Attorneys General Jeff Sessions and William Barr, as well as former Defense Secretaries Jim Mattis and Mark Esper, did not “always advance an America first policy.”
Following McCarthy’s triumph, Trump commented on Jan. 7 that “the Fake News Media was, believe it or not, very gracious in their reporting that I greatly aided Kevin McCarthy in his attainment of the position of Speaker of the House.”
