House Votes to Strip IRS Funds Intended to Catch Tax Cheats

“It’s clear that all the Republican talk about the deficits and debt is little more than an excuse to demand cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and the other federal programs that lift up working Americans and sustain the middle class,” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, said in a statement, calling the bill a “handout to wealthy tax cheats.”

House Republicans are already gearing up for a confrontation over the debt limit, which will likely be reached sometime this summer, requiring both chambers to act so the nation doesn’t default, spurring widespread economic consequences. Former President Donald Trump on Monday urged Republicans to play “tough” to extract concessions from Democrats.

IRS funding, which has mostly been an under-the-radar political debate in Washington over the past decade, could soon become a high-profile issue in showdowns over the debt and budget.

In 2013, after a scandal involving an IRS official singled out conservative groups applying for nonprofit status, Republicans saw a chance to rein in the agency and attempted to impeach then-IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. The GOP failed at that but was successful in enforcing waves of budget cuts when they controlled both the House and Senate.

The cuts forced the IRS to slowly pare back on audits of the wealthy, but the effects ultimately spread across the agency: Some tax refunds took years to process, and in time only 11% of calls to the IRS would reach a human customer service representative.

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