(WATCH) Ted Cruz: “We Should Abolish the IRS!”

Senator Ted Cruz spoke on the Senate floor to discuss the Inflation Reduction Act.

Cruz emphasized one of the most atrocious aspects of the bill that Democrats want to push onto the American people.

The proposal in question is to double the size of the IRS and add 87,000 new agents.

“Democrats want to make the IRS larger than the Pentagon, the State Department, the FBI, and the Border Patrol combined,” Cruz tweeted.

“That’s a terrible idea. We should abolish the IRS!”

WATCH:

Democrats want to make the IRS larger than the Pentagon, the State Department, the FBI, and the Border Patrol combined.

That's a terrible idea. We should abolish the IRS! pic.twitter.com/DtI8SSIHmO

— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) August 7, 2022

Large corporations retain teams of lawyers to deal with IRS audits. Small businesses don’t. 87,000 new IRS agents to audit small businesses is one more insult to the injury of 10% inflation.

— Senator Mike Braun (@SenatorBraun) August 8, 2022

Democrats claim they’re not planning to increase audits while hiring 87,000 IRS agents.

This is like telling your parents you’re not planning a keg party while ordering 87,000 SOLO cups.

— Jimmy Failla (@jimmyfailla) August 8, 2022

Democrats want to hire 87,000 new IRS agents in their middle class tax hike misleadingly named the “Inflation Reduction Act.”

Instead, we should focus on policies that will actually reduce gas and grocery prices to provide relief to American families.

— Pete Stauber (@RepPeteStauber) August 8, 2022

What's in the Democrats' tax and spending bill?

☑️ 87,000 IRS agents to target hardworking Americans
☑️ More Green New Deal policies
☑️ Higher taxes
☑️ Fuel for even more inflation

— William Timmons (@VoteTimmons) August 8, 2022

Ted Cruz issued the following press release:

Senate Democrats blocked U.S. Senator Ted Cruz’s (R-Texas) amendment to the Schumer-Manchin Tax-and-Spend Bill to strike the $80 billion dollar slush fund to prevent the hiring of 87,000 new IRS agents.

Sen. Cruz’s amendment would remove funding for a new army of IRS agents who will surveil innocent Americans and small businesses with 1.2 million additional audits, half of which will target Americans making less than $75,000 a year.

“There are a lot of bad things in this bill. But few are worse than the proposal by Democrats in this bill to double the size of the IRS and create 87,000 new IRS agents. I guarantee you citizens in every one of our states, if you ask them, what do they want, they don’t want 87,000 new IRS agents. And they’re not being created to audit billionaires or giant corporations. They’re being created to audit you. The House Ways and Means Committee, the minority, has put out an estimate that under this bill, there will be 1.2 million new audits per year, with over 700,000 of those new audits falling on taxpayers making $75,000 or less. I believe personally we should abolish the IRS. But at a minimum, we shouldn’t make the IRS larger than the Pentagon, the State Department, the FBI and the Border Patrol all combined. That’s what the Democrats are proposing here. It is a terrible idea. If you don’t want 87,000 new IRS agents, vote yes.”

Forbes reported:

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The Schumer-Manchin tax bill known as the Inflation Reduction Act, which passed the Senate on Sunday, raises taxes and will give the IRS billions to go into what the Wall Street Journal called “beast mode.”

In all, the meant-to-be-inflation buster bill will dole out about $80 billion to the IRS for increase enforcement, operational improvements, customer service, and systems modernization. Think big, really big. That $80 billion is more than six times the current annual IRS budget of $12.6 billion.

How can the IRS spend all of that? You guessed it, the bill says a whopping $45.6 billion will be for enforcement, and make no mistake, enforcement is the main directive from Democrats to the IRS. Get bigger, tougher and faster at collecting, and make them pay. Meanwhile, the IRS could be ramping up its police power too. The IRS is a key part of the government, but not one you usually associate with law enforcement and guns.

Only the Criminal Investigation Division of the IRS can carry guns, but the IRS has been buying more guns and ammunition in recent years, snapping up nearly $700,000 in ammo in early 2022. The bullet buy prompted Representatives Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Jeff Duncan (R-SC) to introduce the “Disarm the IRS Act,” to prohibit the IRS from buying ammunition.

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) tweeted, “87,000 IRS agents will be hired with $80 billion taxpayer dollars when the Senate Reconciliation bill passes this weekend. And they’re buying more guns & ammo too. Lower to middle income Americans & small businesses will be the primary targets of Democrat’s new IRS force.”

The IRS has a hard job to do, but worry about the IRS inventory of weapons is not new. An official report published by the Government Accountability Office said that at the end of 2017, the IRS had 4,487 guns and 5,062,006 rounds of ammunition in its weapons inventory.