CNBC’s Becky Quick Calls Out Republican Over Biden Tax Scheme: ‘Let’s Just Be Fair and Straight,’ It’s the Wealthiest Americans Who Avoid Audits

CNBC anchor Becky Quick called out a conservative guest for claiming that President Joe Biden’s plan to crack down on tax cheats would hurt average Americans.

On Thursday’s edition of CNBC’s Squawk Box, Quick hosted The Heritage Foundation’s Joel Griffith and former Obama IRS official Jorge Castro to discuss Biden’s plan to pay for his Build Back Better agenda by increasing tax enforcement to crack down on tax cheats.

As Quick noted, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has yet to weigh in on the amount of money Biden’s proposal will raise, but she took issue with Griffith when he claimed extra enforcement would hurt the little guy.

Griffith asked if the money raised is “worth the harassment of so many small businesses by these 90000 new agents businesses that, for the most part, are complying? If you look at the numbers coming in and –”

“It’s the wealthiest Americans who have seen their audits go down,” Quick cut in. “You know, let’s just be fair and straight about that. It’s been the wealthiest Americans who saw their audits go down as there was less money to go around with auditors.”

“And that has, in turn, encouraged people to kind of push the envelope in terms of what they will and won’t do,” Quick elaborated. “And again, if you’re a W-2 employee, you are paying exactly what you’re due because everybody’s checking and looking ahead of time.”

“If you’re using different ways of going about it, whether that be calling yourself a small business because there have been a lot of individuals who have done that over the last 10 or 20 years, you know, or doing something else to play around the edges. That’s I think, where enforcement would have a little more teeth,” she said.

In its analysis of the effect of increased enforcement, CBO stated that the audit rate “would rise for all taxpayers, but higher-income taxpayers would face the largest increase. In addition, the Administration’s policies would focus additional IRS resources on enforcement activity aimed at high-wealth taxpayers, large corporations, and partnerships.”

Watch above via CNBC.