MSNBC Anchor Asks Democrat How His Party Can Fight IRS ‘Fearmongering’ From Republicans Like DeSantis

Over a banner saying “REPUBLICAN LEADERS TARGET IRS WITH NEW ATTACKS” on Saturday, MSNBC anchor Alex Witt asked Illinois Democrat Rep. Mike Quigley how he and his fellow Democrats can “cut through the fearmongering” about the massive new IRS money in the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act” and “get the truth out there.”

During the long interview with Rep. Quigley for MSNBC’s Alex Witt Reports, the anchor first asked how the “fallout” from the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago is affecting FBI morale, and how the DOJ is dealing with increased threats. She then asked him about the tax and climate focused “Inflation Reduction Act.” From there she segued into the IRS funding.

“Here’s something a number of Republicans have been trying to do, is convince Americans that the money that’s been allocated to the IRS in this bill allows the agency to now hire 87,000 new employees, and those new agents will audit middle-class taxpayers,” said Witt with visible disdain. She introduced a package of clips that lumped Republicans Rep. Matt Gaetz, Sen. Ted Cruz, and Gov. Ron DeSantis together as they expressed varying degrees of takes about the IRS funding, with Gaetz’s obviously being the most hyperbolic.

After the clip, Witt took it for granted that none of what a Republican has to say about the IRS could possibly be true, and asked what could be done about that.

“How do you cut through this fear-mongering and put the truth out there?” said Witt.

The bill gives the IRS about $80 billion in extra funding over the next 10 years, some of which will be earmarked specifically toward “enforcement” including hiring new agents. A Treasury report last year estimated that with $80 billion in funding, the IRS could hire around 87,000 new employees, which is where that figure featured in so many Republican responses likely originates. It is unlikely that there would be 87,000 brand new auditors and agents on the payroll, leaving none of that money for any other purpose.

It is also unlikely that there won’t be a big new hire of agents at some number lower than 87,000 but above none whatsoever.

Reuters ran a fact-check on the claim that the IRS would be increasing audits on middle class Americans and small business owners, and said those claims lack the “key context” that “Treasury reps have repeatedly said audit scrutiny would not increase relative to recent years for those making less than $400,000.”

Reuters cited IRS Commissioner Charles P. Rettig for that assertion, quoting him saying that “audit rates will not rise relative to recent years for households making under $400,000,” because “honest taxpayers will be better able to comply with the tax laws, resulting in a lower likelihood of being audited and a reduced burden on them.”

In reply to Alex Witt, Rep. Quigley echoed that assertion.

“This will allow the IRS to audit the wealthiest corporations and Americans,” he said. “And these aren’t patriots, what they’re auditing is people who are often tax cheats, who are creating about two-thirds of $1,000,000,000,000 a year in a tax gap.”

Treasury Janet Yellen, in a letter to IRS commissioner Rettig just over a week ago, likewise said that the funding to the IRS would “increase equity in the tax system by enforcing the tax laws against those high-earners, large corporations, and complex partnerships who today do not pay what they owe.”

The Congressional Budget Office, though, reports that $20 billion of revue accounted in the IRA will come directly from audits of individuals making less than $400,000. The Reuters fact-check arguing that new funding and hires won’t focus on individuals below that threshold addresses that point by arguing that the IRS never said it would reduce the current level of auditing, which the reader is left to presume satisfies the question and no further fact-checking needed.

Neither Witt nor Quigley addressed any specific objection in the clips that Witt described as “fearmongering” or implied were lies. Quigley simply agreed with the host that they were untruthful and stated the opposite was true.

After all, as Quigley told her, “if you love this country, one of the things you do is pay your fair share.”

And you can’t fight climate change without the money, he hastened to point out.

Watch the clip above via MSNBC.