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Republicans Bashed For Attacks On IRS Agents After Targeting FBI
Mary Papenfuss
Sat, August 13, 2022 at 9:14 PM
Critics are slamming Republicans for now attacking Internal Revenue Service agents just days after targeting the FBI.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) wildly claimed that IRS agents armed with assault-style rifles were preparing to show up on Americans’ doorsteps to audit their taxes once the agency has an additional $80 billion to enforce the law and sniff out cheats.

Funding and tax changes are part of the Inflation Reduction Act, which next heads to the White House where President Joe Biden will sign it into law.

“Are they going to have a strike force that goes in with AK-15s already loaded, ready to shoot some small-business person in Iowa?” Grassley asked Thursday on “Fox & Friends.”

“I think they’re going after middle-class and small-business people, because basically they think ... they aren’t paying their fair share, and we’re going to go after them,” he added.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) falsely warned that a “new army of 87,000 IRS will be coming for you” if you “make $75,000 or less.”

Critics complained that such claims are not only flatly false, but dangerous for agents.

“Contrary to the misinformation from opponents of this legislation, small business or households earning $400,000 per year or less will not see an increase in the chances that they are audited,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen wrote to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig Thursday.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said in a statement Friday that the “incendiary conspiracy theories Republicans are pushing about armed IRS agents are increasingly dangerous and out of control. High-ranking Republicans are saying shockingly irresponsible things,” he added.

“Given the social media chatter we’re already seeing, it’s all too easy to imagine individuals using these conspiracy theories as justification for violence against public servants and their families,” Wyden said in the statement.

The IRS funding hike, which will occur over 10 years, is intended to help the IRS enforce various provisions in the new Inflation Reduction Act — and increase audits of wealthy scofflaws.

It’s predicted to raise more than $700 billion in new revenue by cracking down on tax cheats, taxing stock buybacks and extending a cap on deductions for business losses.

Members of the so-called “law and order” party appear to increasingly be verb