Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) blasted Democrats over details in a reconciliation bill that would add 87,000 more IRS workers.
Cruz shared the remarks during a Senate floor speech this weekend that noted Americans are not looking for more IRS agents as an answer to the nation’s problems.
“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,” Cruz said during his Senate floor speech.
“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,” he added.
Cruz also expressed concern over the number of estimated new audits under the newly proposed legislation.
“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,” the senator revealed.
In a Twitter post shared by the senator that included the video of his speech, Cruz noted the enormous size the expanded IRS agents would have compared to other areas of the federal government.
“Democrats want to make the IRS larger than the Pentagon, the State Department, the FBI, and the Border Patrol combined,” Cruz wrote. “That’s a terrible idea. We should abolish the IRS!”
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
In another Twitter post on Sunday, Cruz called the bill “big government run amok.”
“My amendment would have struck the funding for 87,000 new IRS agents,” he wrote. “But Democrats want to target the American people and their small businesses will more audits. These agents aren’t going to go after billionaires.”
In addition to concerns related to the expansion of the IRS, Cruz spoke out against a push by Democrats to punish unvaccinated school children in Washington, D.C., from attending school in person.
“Enough is enough. COVID-19 learning loss has been devastating,” Cruz tweeted. “But DC Democrats don’t care. They want to punish unvaccinated schoolkids, primarily minorities, from attending school in person.”
Enough is enough. COVID-19 learning loss has been devastating.
But DC Democrats don’t care. They want to punish unvaccinated schoolkids, primarily minorities, from attending school in-person.
#votearama pic.twitter.com/pYXaSx4ZPq— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) August 7, 2022
Cruz argued that if Democrats vote in favor of the legislation, it will punish thousands of public school students who would not be eligible to attend. He cited research that 85% of 12-15-year-old students in D.C. are vaccinated, but just 60% of African Americans students have received a COVID vaccination.
“We should not be denying children education because D.C. Democrats want to force them to get a COVID vaccine against their wishes or their parents’ wishes,” he concluded.
The Daily Wire previously reported that the District of Columbia requires all children 12 years old and older to be vaccinated for COVID before they begin schooling this fall. The move could negatively affect black students already disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.
Though many school districts have rescinded COVID vaccine requirements, Washington, D.C. mandates that children 12 and older be “up-to-date on required vaccinations before returning this August.”