Katie Porter Rips Republicans Who’ve ‘Spent So Long Attacking Government,’ They ‘Don’t Even Trust Each Other’ Now

Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) used Tuesday’s GOP-led House Oversight Committee hearing on the IRS to take a bite out of Republicans for spending “so long attacking government,” they’ve even lost trust in their own party.

Porter centered her speech around “opportunistic politicians” who have perfected the art of gutting American institutions, beginning with the IRS.

“Have you heard of death by a thousands paper cuts? It’s how to get rid of something by subtly attacking it over and over until it’s finally gone,” Porter began.

“For too many years, Washington politicians have worked to gut the Internal Revenue Service, and they found creative ways to cut the IRS time and time again.”

Porter admitted that “the agency that collects our taxes isn’t easy to love.”

“Believe me, opportunistic politicians know that, too. They go on TV and they give the IRS a verbal slash, falsely suggesting to the American people that the IRS is spying on us, targeting us for our political beliefs, or forcing us to pay more and more money than we owe. What a bunch of B.S.”

Porter accused Republicans of sewing discontent by continuously investigating and attacking IRS employees. She then took a swipe at the House speaker debacle.

“As we sit in yet another Republican-led hearing to attack the IRS instead of making it work better, other Republicans are off slashing our entire Congress at the same time. They’ve stopped Congress from doing its work because they haven’t been able to elect a speaker of the House, so we can’t pass any legislation.

“The most opportunistic Republicans have spent so long attacking our government that now, Republicans don’t even trust each other. But that’s what the opportunists wanted. A weak congress. A weak IRS. It’s what they call ‘smart government,'” Porter said while making air quotes.

“But in reality, it’s a federal government that can’t serve its people. Right now, the opportunists are creating that reality. A bi-partisan coalition of reasonable members can stop them,” she said.

Watch the clip above via YouTube.