Sen. Rob Portman, one of the handful of Republican senators working on an infrastructure bill, said Sunday that IRS enforcement was officially off the table as a means for funding the $1.2 trillion bill. Big surprise, huh? Via Politico:
The Ohio Republican, one of 22 senators working in the bipartisan group to negotiate the infrastructure framework, said increasing IRS enforcement as a way to raise new revenues faced pushback from Republican colleagues — one of the reasons it was no longer a viable option. He also said Democrats are considering including that proposal in the separate $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill, which “created quite a problem.”
Well, sure, since one of the few things Republicans stand for is allowing the very wealthy to cheat on their taxes!
“That's one reason we're having initial meetings today and had more meetings over the past few days on this topic. There are other ways to do this. There’s legislation, one called the Medicare Rebate Rule that provides significant revenue,” Portman said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “I've been on the phone a lot with the Congressional Budget Office and with the Joint Committee on Taxation over the weekend. And we have a number of pay-fors. And that’s important that it be paid for.”
The deal would have provided a $40 billion budget boost for the Internal Revenue Service after decades of cuts, funding that would presumably allow the IRS enforcement division to collect unpaid taxes. Recent IRS research says the annual tax gap between 2011 and 2013 was $441 billion, and a Treasury Department analysis used that figure to project a $584 billion gap for 2019
Notice they not only oppose including it in the infrastructure, THEY WANT TO KEEP IT OUT OF THE RECONCILIATION BILL, TOO! You know, the bill they have nothing to do with because God forbid they actually cooperate with President Biden?
I suppose next they'll stamp their feet and throw themselves on the floor of the Senate. Don't you people know Republicans should be in charge even when they're not?
