Democrats’ Manchin-Biden Build Back Better paves the way for more audits on hard-working taxpayers instead of offering relief for American families struggling with inflation, Republican Leader on the Trade Subcommittee Rep. Adrian Smith (R-TX) writes in an op-ed for Fox News. Democrats rejected Republican efforts to safeguard low- and middle- income taxpayers from being targeted by the 87,000 new agents in Democrats’ supercharged IRS.

CLICK HERE to read the full op-ed.

Key Excerpts:

Democrats’ Manchin-Biden Build Back Better worsens inflation for American families: 

• “Economists agree this massive spending package will do little to nothing to curb our 8.5 percent inflation rate. This package will, however, vastly expand the power of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to conduct costly audits of families and family businesses.”

READ: Seven Democrat Myths about the Manchin-Biden Build Back Better Bill

Lower- and middle- income Americans are the primary target Democrats’ proposal to supercharge the IRS with 87,000 new agents: 

• “Democrats frequently talk about making the ‘rich’ pay their ‘fair share,’ but the Senate Finance Committee found only 4-9 percent of taxpayers making over $500,000 would see additional audits under this bill. So, who will bear the brunt of Democrats’ IRS stimulus? According to the same analysis, it’s the taxpayers making $50,000 or less who will make up between 40 and 57 percent of the enforcement funded in this bill.”
• “The truth is this bill paves the way for more audits for hardworking Americans who can least afford them. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office projects a rise in audit rates for ‘all taxpayers,’ returning audit rates to ‘the levels of about ten years ago.’ An analysis conducted by the House Ways and Means Committee found this will result in roughly 1.2 million new audits each year. Worse, 710,000 of those audits would fall to taxpayers making $75,000 or less.”
• “The IRS doesn’t need more enforcement – and families struggling under record-high inflation don’t need more audits. They need better customer service from a responsive, accountable IRS.”

Democrats rejected protections for lower- and middle- income Americans from new audits: 

• “That’s why I signed on as a cosponsor of an amendment led by my colleague, Rep. Greg Murphy, M.D., to prohibit the use of additional IRS funds from being used for audits of taxpayers with taxable incomes below $400,000. Unsurprisingly, Democrats would not allow this amendment to be considered on the floor. […] They would rather ramp up audits than make sure Americans have an IRS that works for them.”

READ: CBO: New IRS Audits Will Grab at Least $20 BILLION from Lower- & Middle-Income Families