‘Why Not Just Be Honest?’ Tapper Grills House Republican Over Claim About 87,000 New IRS Agents
Jake Tapper clashed with Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) over the Republican claim the Internal Revenue Service will hire 87,000 agents to hound everyday Americans over their taxes.
Last year’s Inflation Reduction Act allocated funding to the IRS to allow the agency to hire 87,000 employees over the next 10 years. The hirings are meant to shore up a gutted IRS whose audits of very wealthy people have plummeted in recent years. That has helped fuel an estimated tax gap of $381 billion a year, which is the difference between what is owed to the government and that which is actually collected.
Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen has directed the IRS to not use the new funding to increase audits on Americans making less than $400,000 a year.
House Republicans have introduced a bill that would repeal the funding for new IRS employees.
On Tuesday’s edition of The Lead on CNN, Johnson repeated the claim that the new agents will be used to target Americans with modest incomes.
“The intent of hiring all of these new agents would have the effect of going after hard-working families and small businesses,” he said. “That is not a Republican talking point. That comes from the Joint Committee on Taxation, which is a nonpartisan group.”
The JCT issued a report last year saying taxes on large corporations may lead those companies to ultimately shift costs to their workers and customers. It says nothing about the IRS “going after hard-working families and small businesses,” as Johnson claimed.
Tapper noted the Congressional Budget Office estimated that not hiring the new IRS employees will cost the federal government $114 billion in lost revenue.
“But I quoted the CBO,” Tapper said. “They’re nonpartisan too.”
“The CBO doesn’t have a lot of credibility here right now,” Johnson replied. “Their analysis is wildly inaccurate in a lot of ways and they don’t always do appropriate analysis.”
Tapper then pressed Johnson over his claim:
TAPPER: I’m just saying, like, why not just be honest about what the bill would actually do?
JOHNSON: I am honest.
TAPPER: You said 87,000 IRS agents. That’s not what it is.
JOHNSON: Jake, that is exactly what it is. That is the treasury’s own published report in 2021 that they said, as you noted, over a 10-year period. They wanted to add 86,800–
TAPPER: Employees. Not agents. Employees.
JOHNSON: Jake, you know what all of those positions are going to be? Have you seen the analysis?
TAPPER: You’re saying every one of the 86,000-plus is going to be an IRS agent?
JOHNSON: I’m not saying every one of them. But I’m saying a large percentage of those will be IRS employees who are deemed as agents to go after and do audits.
Tapper asked Johnson if the wealthy not paying all the taxes they owe is a problem. Johnson said yes, but claimed the 87,000 agents won’t prevent tax-dodging.
Watch above via CNN.
