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LETTER: Republicans offer no solutions | Letters to the Editor - Ashland Daily Press

For weeks, Republicans have been telling voters across the country that President Joe Biden and Democrats will be sending an army of 87,000 IRS agents to audit everyday Americans, to dig deeper into their pockets to pay for unfunded liberal programs like student loan forgiveness. Leading up to the midterm elections, GOP candidates are running campaign ads featuring the claim and vowing to stop the IRS, once Republicans control Congress again. Where did this idea originate and is there any truth to it? Here's what to know about whether the tax men cometh.

The 87,000 figure comes from a Treasury report released in May 2021, which evaluated a proposal to provide the IRS with an additional $80 billion in funding. That amount of money has since been approved, courtesy of the climate, health care and tax law passed earlier this year.

The analysis showed that over 10 years, the IRS could add nearly 87,000 full-time employees. But nowhere does it say how many employees would be auditors versus other kinds of IRS employees, like customer service staff who can help taxpayers process their payments and receive refunds. The figure also represents the gross number of employees that could potentially be hired, not the net total as the agency faces attrition over the next decade.

It varies. On social media, some are saying the IRS agents will be armed. Others, like Washington GOP Senate candidate Tiffany Smiley, are capitalizing on the sheer size of the number. It's "insane that Joe Biden and Patty Murray are sending a stadium full or IRS agents to force families making less than $75,000 to pay for someone else's law degree," she says in one ad.

North Carolina Senate candidate Ted Budd complains in another ad that Mr. Biden has "spent recklessly," and "now he wants 87,000 more IRS agents to cover his tab." Meanwhile, House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy is vowing to repeal the 87,000 agents in Republicans' first bill if they win the majority.

No, the claims are outdated and misleading. While the IRS will be getting $80 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act passed in August, the IRS has not yet released a plan for the money. In August, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen sent a memo to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig directing the agency to deliver a plan within six months on how the funding will be used over the next decade. Yellen also had another directive for the agency regarding new personnel and which Americans shouldn't see more audits.

"Any additional resourcesincluding any new personnel or auditors that are hiredshall not be used to increase the share of small business or households below the $400,000 threshold that are audited relative to historical levels," she wrote in a letter. In a separate letter to the Senate, Rettig, a Trump appointee, also stated the resources are "absolutely not about increasing audit scrutiny on small businesses or middle-income Americans."

The IRS proposal for the money is due in February.

Of the $80 billion in funding nearly $46 billion was allocated to go toward enhanced enforcement as the IRS looks to close the so-called "tax gap," which currently stands at an estimated $600 billion annually and $7.5 trillion over the next ten years. Apart from enforcement, the money is also being used for improving taxpayers services and technology.

"The resources to modernize the IRS will be used to improve taxpayer services from answering the phones to improving IT systems and to crack down on high-income and corporate tax evaders who cost the American people hundreds of billions of dollars each year," a Treasury official said.

The IRS has been facing growing challenges over decades which were exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. Some of the technology used by the agency dates back to the 1960s. In both reports and testimony before Congress, Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins has described IRS employees having to manually enter information line by line from paper returns. She has called paper returns "kryptonite" in numerous warnings to Congress. Her midyear report in June stated the agency had a backlog of 21.3 million unprocessed paper tax returns at the end of May. That number has come down, though. The IRS recently said it had 6.2 million unprocessed individual returns as of Sept. 23, including 4.6 million paper returns to be reviewed and processed.

The IRS has also struggled with its customer service load. Its workforce remains at similar levels to the 1970s despite a growing population and additional responsibilities. In the last tax filing season, the agency was only able to pick up about 10% of calls an issue that frustrated both Republican and Democratic lawmakers.

Filling vacant positions, mostly. The IRS is on the verge of losing more than 50,000 employees who are set to retire over the next five years.

"The majority of new employees will replace the standard level of staff departures over the next few years," said an Treasury official, adding that new staff will be hired to "to improve taxpayer services and experienced auditors who can take on corporate and high-end tax evaders, without increasing audit rates relative to historical norms for people earning under $400,000 each year."

On the enforcement side, the IRS has lost 40% of the complex revenue agents needed to go after high-end tax evaders over the past decade. The agency is working with the same number of auditors dealing with complex work as it had in World War II.

Just a fraction of employees across the entire IRS are armed. The criminal investigation unit is a small division within the agency with less than 2,000 employees less than 3% of total workforce. And within that unit, only special agents are armed, so even fewer than the 2,000 employees working there. The unit deals in matters such as narcotics and money laundering. Recently, it's been part of the task force tracking Russian oligarchs' assets.

CBS News reporter covering economic policy.

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Weeks before midterm elections, Republicans warn of an army of 87,000 IRS agents that will harass Americans - CBS News

The first big hint came in February. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., unveiled a controversial policy agenda in February, which touched on practically every issue under the sun, but it didnt say a word about repealing or replacing the Affordable Care Act.

Soon after, Sen. Ron Johnson briefly suggested he wanted to put ACA repeal back on the table. When Democrats pounced, the Wisconsin Republican scrambled to walk it back.

In the months that followed, as regular readers know, GOP officials at the state and federal level, up and down the ballot steered clear of health care altogether. Obamacare was a staple of Republican attack ads for years, but in 2022, GOP politicians not only removed the arrow from their rhetorical quiver, they also started editing their websites, erasing their previous criticisms.

When House GOP leaders unveiled their Commitment to America blueprint two weeks ago, it too ignored the Affordable Care Act altogether.

Following up on our months of coverage, NBC News confirmed this week that Republicans are abandoning their long crusade to repeal the Affordable Care Act, adding some unexpected quotes from key GOP officials.

I think its probably here to stay, said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, a close ally of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and a former chair of the GOPs campaign arm. ... Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., a member of the Republican Study Committee, was ... asked whether he expects a new Republican House majority to pursue ACA repeal. I dont think thats on the table, he said.

As we recently discussed, in the not-too-distant past, this wouldve been tough to predict. Indeed, for those of us who covered the political fight over the Affordable Care Act closely, this day seemed highly implausible. Before Barack Obama signed the reform package into law, Republicans condemned it as an economy-destroying attack on free enterprise and the American way of life. After the ACA became law, Republicans spent years not only denouncing the reforms, but also voting several dozen times to repeal it.

The idea of Cornyn saying on the record that the reform law is probably here to stay was a fantasy. And yet, here we are.

But as important as these developments are, this need not end the conversation. Theres a very real chance that Republicans will control at least one chamber of Congress early next year, and whether the party wants to talk about the issue or not, voters deserve to know what the GOP agenda is when it comes to the health care policy.

Aside from vowing to undo Democratic measures to reduce the cost of prescription medications a top Republican priority what should American families expect from GOP majorities? The public can take comfort in the fact that repeal and replace has been dropped from the Republicans to-do list, but has it been replaced by something new?

Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MSNBC political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "The Impostors: How Republicans Quit Governing and Seized American Politics."

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On the ACA, Republicans acknowledge reality, wave the white flag - MSNBC

If Republicans win back control of Congress in November, buckle up for many, many investigations.

House Republicans have offered few details of what sorts of governing and legislation theyd like to accomplish if they prevail in the midterms, but they havent been shy about making an enemies list.

HuffPost went through House Republicans Commitment to America campaign document, public statements by party leaders and other accounts of investigation plans, showing a list of almost two dozen targets. And if one includes all the topics House Republicans have at least formally expressed an interest in looking into, the number of probe or hearing targets rises to more than 70.

Some of these may be subsets of others treatment of school closure protesters could be part of a the politicization of the Justice Department probe, for example but the target list runs the gamut, from the Afghanistan withdrawal to investigating the presidents son, Hunter.

While this list is extensive, it may be too conservative. In the current Congress that began last year, House Republicans have filed 56 resolutions of inquiry, formal congressional resolutions asking specific parts of the administration to hand over documents and communications on matters of interest, potentially for later investigations.

While none of the resolutions have passed the House to force the administration to provide the materials, the amount and breadth of subjects from seeking information on the projected inflationary impact of various big-ticket bills Democrats have passed to wanting information on failed anti-COVID drug ivermectin provide another roadmap to potential GOP probe and hearing interest.

(In some cases, different lawmakers filed similar resolutions on the same subject or some resolutions were filed in slightly different form by the same lawmaker.)

Those subjects include (with wording coming directly from the resolutions):

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the likely chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which would head up many of these potential probes, told HuffPost the investigations were not retaliatory, despite the potential number and scope of them.

No, its our constitutional duty, he said. The Judiciary Committee, were going to look at the immigration issue, were going to look at all the politics of the DOJ. Thats what we should do. Well do it in a way thats consistent with the Constitution, he said.

Our main focus right now is winning. Weve got to go out and win this election so lets see what happens there. I think were going to.

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Here Is The House GOPs Hit List If Republicans Retake Congress - HuffPost

Over the past two years, Americans have faced 40-year high inflation, broken supply chains, and rising crime in our streets and communities.

Theyve faced a Democrat-controlled government that is more interested in pleasing its radical wing of progressive activists than it is in solving problems and increasing workers paychecks in real dollars which have been on the decline due to Democrat policies.

But House Republicans have a plan. Their Commitment to America would create an economy thats strong, a country thats safe, a future thats built on freedom, and a government thats accountable.

In their press conference today, Leader Kevin McCarthy (CA-23), Whip Steve Scalise (LA-01), Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (NY-21), and other Members of the House Republican Conference made it clear, through the Commitment to America, that Americas priorities are the Republican Partys priorities.

Leader McCarthys remarks as prepared are below, or you may watch online here.

I am standing here with my colleagues because Republicans have a new direction for America.

The past two years have been the toughest Americans have experienced in a long time.

President Biden has failed on grocery prices, on energy prices, on crime, at the border, on the world stage, on basic accountability. He brought runaway inflation with his reckless spending.

House Democrats have supported Bidens failed agenda every step of the way. And now, they have no plan to fix these problems, only excuses.

Listen to them. The White House says inflation is only up by inches, the border is secure, and the spike in crime is just a bump in the road. They just dont get it.

Its time to get our country back on track. Its time to make a Commitment to America.

Republicans have a plan to stop reckless spending, get inflation under control, unleash American energy, and bring our supply chains back from China.

We have a plan to end catch-and-release loopholes, invest in effective border enforcement, crack down on fentanyl, and make sure soft on crime DAs dont receive another federal dime.

We have a plan to pass a Parents Bill of Rights, to expand school choice, and to protect fairness and our God-given freedoms.

And we have a plan to rein in runaway government and restore real checks and balances, starting with firing the 87,000 IRS agents that Biden just hired.

Thats the contrast were seeing. Republicans believe Washington should serve the American people. Democrats believe Washington should go after them.

So my question to every American is this: Can you afford Democrats failures?

If you want an economy that is strong, a nation that is safe, a future that is built on freedom, and a government that is accountable, join us.

Go to CommitmenttoAmerica.com. Look at our plan and contrast it with what weve seen for the past two years.

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House Republicans are United Behind the Commitment to America - House Republican Leader