Commentary: Big Tent Ideas

MURDOCK: Meet The Senate’s Spendthrift Seven — IRS Agents’ Best Friend And Taxpayers’ Worst Enemy

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Aug. 7 was a big day for the Spendthrift Seven. In just 12 hours, these Senate Democrats — all facing re-election Tuesday — gave the middle finger to middle-class taxpayers, hugged illegal aliens, and high-fived the IRS.

Arizona’s Mark Kelly, Colorado’s Michael Bennet, Connecticut’s Richard Blumenthal, Georgia’s Raphael Warnock, Nevada’s Catherine Cortez Masto, New Hampshire’s Maggie Hassan and Washington’s Patty Murray did these things while the Senate considered President Joe Biden’s deceptively titled, 273-page Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Their votes should appall every American.

While their constituents slept, the Spendthrift Seven torpedoed this country’s best interests.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) forecasts that the IRA will ease inflation by 0.1%, maximum. A startling cost for this subliminal benefit is Biden’s scheme to hire 86,852 new IRS agents — roughly duplicating Asheville, North Carolina. This would swell the tax bureaucracy from 93,654 employees to 180,506 — up 92.7%.

Senate Republicans tried valiantly to kill or curb Biden’s blunder.

• First, Idaho Republican Sen. Mike Crapo tried to guard non-millionaire taxpayers from these new agents. According to Congress.gov, Crapo’s amendment aimed to “prevent the use of additional Internal Revenue Service Funds from being used for audits of taxpayers with taxable incomes below $400,000 in order to protect low- and middle-income earning American taxpayers.”

The Congressional Joint Economic Committee calculated that unleashing these new tax collectors, not on Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg, but on nurses, plumbers and teachers, through 2031, would squeeze $30.2 billion from Americans who earn less than $200,000 annually.

Every Senate Republican voted Yea on Crapo’s plan to shield hard-working taxpayers from federal audits.

Arizona voters are hotter than Gila monsters about Biden’s new tax collectors, as this street sign in Tempe confirms. Photo: Deroy Murdock

However, the Spendthrift Seven refused to isolate IRS auditors from everyday Americans, whose per capita personal incomes equal $64,413. So, at 2:54 a.m., they joined every other Senate Democrat, voted Nay, and unanimously killed Senator Crapo’s amendment.

But the Spendthrift Seven were just getting started.

• Second, Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott offered a modest proposal: To get the 87,000 new IRS agents whom Biden Democrats crave, they first must authorize 18,000 brand-new Border Patrol officers. Every Senate Republican voted Yea.

This vote should have been easy for the Spendthrift Seven. The U.S.-Mexico frontier is in total meltdown, 3,817,180 illegal aliens invaded the southwestern “border” in Biden’s first 20 months (up 362% versus President Donald J. Trump’s final 20 months), and fentanyl – mainly smuggled from Mexico – killed 71,238 Americans in 2021, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

So what?

At 3:17 a.m., the Spendthrift Seven joined all other Senate Democrats, voted Nay, and killed Sen. Scott’s amendment.

• Next, the Spendthrift Seven could have kept the IRA and spared Americans the price and pain of these new taxocrats. Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz sponsored an amendment: “To strike the $80,000,000,000 slush fund for the Internal Revenue Service to prevent the hiring of 87,000 new IRS employees that will surveil and audit the private account information and transaction data of innocent Americans and small businesses.”

At 8:13 a.m., every Senate Republican voted Yea. The Spendthrift Seven and the entire Democrat conference voted Nay and killed Cruz’s amendment.

• After this long night’s journey into the day, the IRA and its $739 billion in new taxes, $433 billion in New Green Deal giveaways, and — of course — 87,000 new IRS agents approached the finish line. At 3:04 p.m., all Senate Republicans voted Nay. The Spendthrift Seven and all other Democrats voted Yea. Vice President Kamala Harris broke the 50-50 tie, and the IRA squeaked through the Senate. The House concurred on Aug. 12, and Biden signed this leviathan into law on Aug. 16.

To recap: The Spendthrift Seven and every single Senate Democrat picked Americans’ pockets, sicced tax enforcers on them and kept them vulnerable to trans-“border” dangers. They did this on Aug. 7, while voters baked on beaches and strolled through amusement parks.

Nov. 8 will be a huge day for Americans. Everyone outraged by these legislative betrayals should vote Nay on the Spendthrift Seven.

Manhattan-based political commentor Deroy Murdock is a Fox News Contributor.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.