**Republicans Fight to Protect Middle-Class Americans from Overreaching IRS Agents**
Republicans continue to express concerns regarding the funding and potential overreach of an expanded IRS force that may disproportionately target middle and upper-middle-class citizens. The promise made by Speaker McCarthy to revoke their funding is starting to lose ground, and Americans deserve better.
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Earlier this year, the House of Representatives voted 221-210 to cut funding for 87,000 IRS agents. Despite the claims of the Inflation Reduction Act, the Wall Street Journal revealed that this expanded force would particularly target the middle and upper-middle class. Republicans argue that this would disadvantage middle-class citizens who lack the resources for legal representation during audits.
Representative Lauren Boebert (R-CO) has been consistently raising her concerns and keeping the public updated about these IRS agents. She stresses that wealthy individuals, who have access to tax attorneys and accountants, would not suffer from such audits. Instead, it is the middle class who would bear the brunt of this overreach – citizens who make just enough to file but not enough to afford costly legal defense.
On another front, a deal to raise the federal debt ceiling was reportedly agreed upon between Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and President Joe Biden. The agreement is said to keep a significant part of the $80 billion expansion of the IRS and the 87,000 agents targeting middle-class families. Although some Republicans have congratulated McCarthy and others for their supposed “wins,” many have slammed them for folding and settling for practically nothing in exchange for raising the debt ceiling by $4 trillion.
Representative Dan Bishop (R-NC) criticized this situation, expressing disappointment that they only managed to rescind $1.9 billion of the $80 billion appropriated to the IRS. He lamented that next year’s fight to rescind more funds for the IRS has effectively been squashed, too, as the debt ceiling is suspended for two years. As a result, American families might face 85,260 agents instead of 87,000, but this hardly constitutes a considerable victory.
Several other Republicans have blasted this agreement or expressed their dissatisfaction. Representatives Chip Roy (R-TX) and Ralph Norman both highlighted the lack of cuts and increases in debt for such minimal results. They fear that middle and upper-middle-class Americans will end up with the short end of the stick as they face audits and potential financial ruin at the hands of an expanded IRS force.
**Americans Deserve Better Than an Overreaching IRS**
The ongoing battle against excessive funding and agents for the IRS highlights the need for a re-evaluation of government action that disproportionally impacts middle-class Americans. The growing debt and minimal results achieved thus far stress that the nation’s citizens deserve a more competent and fair resolution.
