Republicans have managed to secure faster funding cuts to the IRS in the recently-announced deal with Democrats on top-line spending numbers for a government funding measure, meaning roughly 25 percent of the recent $80 billion funding boost for the IRS will evaporate as quickly as this year.
The Inflation Reduction Act that President Joe Biden signed into law in 2022 initially included around $80 billion to expand the IRS’ budget over ten years. This drew the ire of Republicans, who argued that much of that money would go to hiring an “army” of tax enforcers who would reach for low-hanging fruit and target ordinary Americans rather than wealthier, more financially sophisticated taxpayers who are trickier to audit.
That $80 billion in additional IRS funding was pared down to $60 billion due in last year’s debt-ceiling deal struck between President Biden and then-House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). That deal clawed back $10 billion in each of the calendar years 2024 and 2025 from the tax agency’s appropriations.
But now, amid a fresh round of negotiations on a new spending package to avert a government shutdown in the coming weeks, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said he managed to win an accelerated timeframe for the IRS cuts.
“The concessions we achieved will include an additional $10 billion in cuts to the IRS mandatory funding (for a total of $20 billion)” in fiscal year 2024, Mr. Johnson wrote in a Jan. 7 letter to his Republican colleagues, in which he notified them that he had reached a tentative deal with Democrats on $1.59 trillion in top-line spending for the current fiscal year.
Slashing IRS funding more quickly was met with criticism from left-leaning groups, including the think tank Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP).
Abolish The IRS?
In his letter, Mr. Johnson said that the final overall spending levels (not just regarding the IRS) “do not cut as much spending as many of us would like,” but they do move the process forward and reprioritize funding “towards conservative objectives,” which have in the past included calls to reduce funding for the IRS—or even abolish it entirely.Republicans have repeatedly raised the issue of abolishing the IRS, for instance, in January 2023 by introducing the Fair Tax Act, which would overhaul the tax system by eliminating the income tax in favor of a national sales tax—and eliminate the need for the IRS.
“Armed, unelected bureaucrats should not have more power over your paycheck than you do,” Mr. Carter added.
‘Burdensome Taxation Smothering Growth’
In April 2023, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who has repeatedly called for defunding the IRS, once again issued a similar rallying cry on the occasion of Tax Day 2023.“Americans have had enough of the Democratic double-whammy of cynical, manipulative power politics and burdensome taxation smothering growth and opportunity. There is a better way, and Tax Day is a good day to remember that,” he added.
A number of Republicans have, over the years, proposed various alternatives to the current income tax code.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) revived that idea in 2015 with the Flat and Fair Tax, a policy that would institute a 14.5 percent tax rate on all income while replacing the corporate tax with a 14.5 percent business transfer tax.
Meanwhile, in his “Dear Colleague” letter, Mr. Johnson noted that the tentative deal would include an additional $16 billion in spending cuts over the previously negotiated framework and a $30 billion overall reduction compared to the Senate’s original spending plan.
The tentative agreement could also fall by the wayside and be replaced by a continuing resolution.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on Jan. 9 that Congress would “obviously” have to pass a continuing resolution because time is too tight to finalize the 12 regular government funding bills ahead of a looming deadline despite the tentative deal on top-line spending.
