On Monday, Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) took to the floor to rail against “reckless spending” by Democrats — only to immediately be shot down by Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA).
“1,740 new IRS agents in every state, for one purpose,” said Duncan, referring to funding to replace retiring IRS staffers and improve the agency’s manpower to fight wealthy tax evaders. “To go after small businesses, hardworking Americans, to raise money to pay for reckless spending, reckless spending that’s cost $31 trillion in debt in this nation. This is the right thing to do, I’ll tell you what: repurpose those agents to the Southern border. Or we could repurpose them and build the Keystone XL Pipeline … but then the government turns around and hires $87,000 IRS agents to go after your constituents and mine?”
McGovern had a few choice words in response.
“I would remind my friend that the first bill you’re doing is gonna add $114 billion to the deficit,” said McGovern. “Enough.”
McGovern is referring to a new Congressional Budget Office report finding that canceling the funding to restaff the IRS would save about $71 billion — but also reduce tax revenues by $186 billion due to reduced enforcement, for a deficit increase of $114 billion.
The IRS restaffing, which Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has directly pledged will not be used for audits on people making less than $400,000 a year, was passed as part of the Inflation Reduction Act — the broad package of energy, climate, and health care reforms passed via reconciliation last year.
FACTS:
The IRS plans to hire about 87,00 people over the next 8-10 years to replace retiring employees. While some of these will be auditors, the bulk of them are administrative support — IT specialists, secretaries, and the like.
The Keystone pipeline was completed six years ago and is transporting Canadian oil to refineries in the Midwest and Gulf Coast. The Keystone XL pipeline has not been built. It was intended to take Canadian oil directly to the US Gulf Coast where it would be exported, with the profits going to Canada. Not a drop of XL oil would go to the US.