On a party line vote, the House Republicans passed the Family and Small Business Protection Act HR23. It will keep a small portion for customer service and upgrades of technology for the Internal Revenue Service(IRS), but it would stop the Democrats from giving the IRS nearly six times their current budget of $80 billion and adding to their wish list of 87,000 new agents over the next 10 years.
An entire football stadium of IRS agents, that’s how many our Congresswomen Marie Gluesenkamp Perez wants to hire. Statistics show families making $75,000 or less are hit the hardest. It’s been said because they are easy targets. Our very own Washington Congressional District 3 representative sided with the IRS and her fellow Dems.
How does spending $80 billion and hiring 87,000 agents fix inflation and make life easier for the average American family? This was part of the Democrats Inflation Reduction Act. Gluesenkamp Perez promised us that she would be there for us with an independent voice and look out for the citizens of Southwest Washington. But when it came time to walk her talk, she threw us all under the bus.
Regardless of Perez's failed vote, HR23 passed the House and now has to go to the Democrat-controlled Senate. It will most likely be rejected. Biden has said he will veto this bill if it passes the Senate. President Biden and his administration has consistently said no one making under $400,000 will be affected; but when it came time to write this into the legislation, the Dems refused. A nonpartisan joint committee taxation study shows more than 75% of the money raised from under reported income comes from people earning under $200,000 a year. Less than 10% comes from those making more than $500,000 a year. Another study from Syracuse University found the poorest families were audited at a rate five times higher than for everyone else, compared to the 2% millionaires that were audited the year before.
Not to make matters worse, but have you heard of the new IRS rule starting Jan. 1. Gee, thanks Rep. Gluesenkamp Perez. Middle income and small business owners will be facing more cost for accepting payments on services such as PayPal, eBay, Venmo and Airbnb. It used to be any total transactions under $20,000 there were no taxes. Now any total transactions over $600 will be reported to the IRS and receive a 1099-K form. Groceries have gone up and gas is still too high. The average working families and our elderly on fixed income are getting hammered, and it’s about to get worse.
Gluesenkamp Perez said she would be an independent voice; but she forgot about us when she voted on these bills and many others.
Chris Granger
Silver Creek
