Biden budget proposal includes 15 percent funding boost for IRS on top of massive increase received in 2022

By 
 March 10, 2023

President Joe Biden released on Thursday his proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2024, and it includes a 15 percent increase in funding for the Internal Revenue Service, Breitbart reported.

That boost in funding comes on top of the additional nearly $80 billion over 10 years that was already allocated to the IRS in the so-called Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 and more than replaces the several hundred million in taxpayer dollars that Republicans had stripped from the agency's coffers in the end-of-year government funding bill.

Even more funding for the IRS

According to a White House "fact sheet" released on Thursday, the funding for the IRS in President Biden's proposed budget is intended to be used to crack down on "high-income individuals and corporations who too often avoided paying their lawfully owed taxes" while also improving service for taxpayers more generally.

"The funding will allow the IRS to modernize IT infrastructure, administer new energy tax credits, and rebuild the administrative capacity of the agency," the White House stated.

The fact sheet added, "To realize these goals and ensure that taxpayers receive the highest quality customer service and that all Americans are treated fairly by the U.S. tax system, the Budget provides a total of $14.1 billion for the IRS, $1.8 billion, or 15 percent, above the 2023 enacted level."

Lots of new proposed tax hikes

According to The Hill, President Biden's proposed budget for FY2024 weighs in at $6.8 trillion, which is substantially higher than the estimated $4.9 trillion in revenue that was received by the federal government in 2022.

That obviously means that there will be a significant deficit, but in an effort to minimize that gap between revenue and expenditures, Biden has put forward a number of tax hike proposals, including a rollback of certain provisions within the 2017 tax cuts under former President Donald Trump.

It also includes a so-called "billionaire" tax that would impose a minimum 25 percent levy on Americans with total wealth in excess of $100 million. It would also raise the corporate tax rate to 28 percent from 21 percent, increase taxes on foreign earnings, and roughly quadruple the tax on corporate stock buybacks, as well as impose a special tax on "earned and unearned income above $400,000" that would ostensibly be used solely to help maintain the solvency of Medicare and help reduce costs for beneficiaries.

Of course, Republicans in the House and Senate stand opposed to any tax hikes, arguing instead for substantial spending reductions, and The Hill noted that, like most presidential budget proposals, this latest one from Biden is essentially "dead on arrival" in Congress.

GOP leaders hit back at Biden's "unserious" budget proposal

The "dead on arrival" point was made fairly clear in a joint statement released in response to President Biden's budget proposal by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN), and GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY).

"President Joe Biden’s budget is a reckless proposal doubling down on the same Far Left spending policies that have led to record inflation and our current debt crisis," the Republican leadership team said.

They pointed out that, per the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the significant deficit spending would increase the national debt to roughly double the size of the entire economy within 30 years and include $10 trillion in interest payments alone within 10 years.

"We must cut wasteful government spending. Our debt is one of the greatest threats to America and the time to address this crisis is now," the GOP leaders said. "Yet, President Biden is proposing out of control spending and delaying debt negotiations, following his pattern of shrugging and ignoring when faced with a crisis."

"Despite the federal government collecting as much in taxes from American families as at any point in our history, federal spending is rising even faster and our debt is soaring, burdening hardworking families across America," they added in conclusion. "This is a spending problem, not a revenue problem. Yet President Biden’s unserious budget proposal includes trillions in new taxes that families will pay directly or through higher costs."

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