The first bill passed by the Republican House of Representatives in the 118th Congress was the Family and Small Business Taxpayer Protection Act.
It was passed along party lines: 221-210, and now goes to the Senate.
The bill rescinds previously appropriated appropriations and authorizations for the IRS in Joe Biden and the Democrats’ green new deal legislation passed last year. That law, the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act”, would allow the IRS to hire 87,000 new agents to persecute middle class Americans and small business owners.
The “Inflation Reduction Act” provided $80 billion on top of the IRS’s existing $12 billion annual appropriation to hire new IRS agents so they can squeeze every last dime out of American taxpayers.
Democrats claimed this was about going after the rich, but they repeatedly rejected Republican attempts to put in guardrails to protect middle and lower income Americans from IRS predations. The CBO estimates that the increase in funding will mean 700,000 new audits for Americans making $75,000 or less.
We cannot trust the IRS, which uses the tax code as a political weapon. In just the last decade we’ve seen:
- Targeting of Tea Party and conservative groups.
- Attempts to surveil ALL American bank accounts.
- Massive leaks of information to damage political opponents.
- Release of the former President’s private tax returns.
The Senate must now fight to pass this crucial legislation on behalf of the American People.
