The federal debt ceiling crisis was averted but tax cheats benefited.

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 contained $79 billion for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS); $45 billion of it was to audit individuals or businesses making over $400,000 dollars annually, to catch those not paying their taxes. Funding cuts for many years rendered the IRS largely unable to audit the wealthy. Currently, the amount in taxes owed but not paid totals nearly $7 trillion over a decade; three-fifths is held by the top 10% of taxpayers, more than one-quarter by the top 1%. (Brookings Tax Policy Center).

US House Republicans’ Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023 spelled out their initial demands for raising the federal debt ceiling. That Act shows their hypocrisy: they claim to want to cut federal spending, but their Act would have eliminated the $45 billion targeting tax cheats that would more than pay for itself. The final debt ceiling deal cut $21.4 billion from that $45 billion.

Did House Republicans, especially Cathy McMorris Rodgers, simply want to protect their huge donors, even if they’re tax cheats? She not only received more from Political Action Committees (PACs) than any of the other 800 or so House candidates in 2022, but her nearly $3 million from corporate PACs exceeded the runner-up by nearly 40 percent. (Committee for Responsible Politics, http://www.opensecrets.org .)

McMorris Rodgers is reported to have called this proposed IRS auditing as harassment of taxpayers. Is she critically dependent on her excessive money advantage to win?

Norm Luther