Democrats are rushing to get an omnibus bill passed before government funding runs out on Friday, and their legislation clocks in at a staggering 4,155 pages outlining where $1.7 trillion in taxpayer dollars will be spent. Unsurprisingly, it's full of Democrats' favorite things that President Biden and his party hope won't be noticed by lawmakers before it passes.
To be clear, dropping the omnibus bill's text at 2:30 in the morning with just days before a final vote is slated to be held is intentional. A typical Nancy Pelosi situation where Americans' elected representatives are essentially forced to "pass the bill to see what's in it."
Among other Democrat pet projects receiving piles of taxpayer money is the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS is slated to receive $2,780,606,000 for "taxpayer services" including "pre-filing assistance and education, filing and account services, taxpayer advocacy services." But the IRS is also getting $5,437,622,000 — roughly double the amount dedicated to helping Americans file their taxes — for "enforcement" to go after Americans:
For necessary expenses for tax enforcement activities of the Internal Revenue Service to determine and collect owed taxes, to provide legal and litigation support, to con5 duct criminal investigations, to enforce criminal statutes related to violations of internal revenue laws and other financial crimes, to purchase and hire passenger motor vehicles (31 U.S.C. 1343(b)), and to provide other services as authorized by 5 U.S.C. 3109, at such rates as may be determined by the Commissioner, $5,437,622,000; of which not to exceed $250,000,000 shall remain available until September 30, 2024; of which not less than $60,257,000 shall be for the Interagency Crime and Drug Enforcement program; and of which not to exceed $25,000,000 shall be for investigative technology for the Criminal Investigation Division: Provided, That the amount made available for investigative technology for the Criminal Investigation Division shall be in addition to amounts made available for the Criminal Investigation Division under the ‘‘Operations Support’’ heading.
Recommended
In addition, another $4,100,826,000 in taxpayer dollars is going to the IRS' "operations support" budget line, which means even more funding to:
...operate the Internal Revenue Service to support taxpayer services and enforcement programs, including rent payments; facilities services; printing; postage; physical security; headquarters and other IRS-wide administration activities; research and statistics of income; telecommunications; information technology development, enhancement, operations, maintenance and security; the hire of passenger motor vehicles (31 U.S.C. 1343(b)); the operations of the Internal Revenue Service Oversight Board; and other services as authorized by 5 U.S.C. 3109, at such rates as may be determined by the Commissioner.
The Heritage Foundation has already come out strongly against the $1.7 trillion omnibus bill, including the IRS funding provisions that will help President Biden and his party continue to wage a politicized bureaucratic war on their political and ideological opponents.
Republicans would sacrifice their leverage on all those investigations and more by giving Biden and Democrats exactly what they want—money to continue on, unaffected, for another year.
— Heritage Foundation (@Heritage) December 20, 2022
Giving up that power now is pure negligence.
Heritage explained that there's "no reason to rubber-stamp this spending bill now" and urged GOP lawmakers in the upper chamber to fight the bill. "If just 41 of the 50 Senate Republicans say no, they can ensure their House counterparts have all the tools they need to conduct the much-needed oversight and hold the Biden administration accountable," Heritage noted.
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