Rep. Tenney to Newsmax: Send Funding for IRS Agents to Border

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Rep. Tenney to Newsmax: Send Funding for IRS Agents to Border rep. claudia tenney speaking Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y.

By Sandy Fitzgerald | Tuesday, 04 October 2022 09:43 AM EDT

Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., has introduced legislation to redirect $80 billion to the border rather than spending it to hire new IRS agents, and told Newsmax on Tuesday the money, allocated through the Inflation Reduction Act, would be "wasted" otherwise.

But she told Newsmax's "Wake Up America" that her legislation won't pass while Democrats continue to hold the House, even while her office and "all the offices in Congress have been dealing with taxpayer advocacy issues."

"People are still not up to date on their taxes because of the IRS' inadequacies," said Tenney, noting the delays are not only because of the COVID-19 pandemic but because the IRS is focused on the wrong things, particularly dealing with middle-and-lower-income taxpayers.

The Inflation Reduction Act allows the $80 billion to hire 87,000 new IRS agents — who Tenney slammed as being "Gestapo-like people" — for tax enforcement the Biden administration says will target only higher-income people.

But Tenney, like other critics, said the auditors will target lower-income taxpayers.

"Our country was founded on the concept of you are innocent until proven guilty, but we know under the IRS, we've empowered them, and now you're guilty until proven innocent," she said. "This is only going to affect the lower and middle-income taxpayers because they can't afford lawyers and accountants for compliance."

Further, the inflation legislation is the "biggest climate bill, the biggest Green New Deal bill we've ever signed in American history," said Tenney.

"They weren't talking about inflation because spending causes inflation," she said. "The cartels are running the border. They're making hundreds of millions of dollars with human trafficking and drug trafficking … why are we focused on going after the most beleaguered citizens in the nation?"

Tenney acknowledged her legislation won't be approved while Democrats hold the House majority, but if the Republicans retake the House, which she thinks they will, the bill will have a chance.

She also said the border crisis has caused the fentanyl overdose epidemic, but said the Biden administration does not want to address it.

"This has been going on for years with opioids," she said. "We did a lot under the Trump administration to combat opiates in our communities through community block grants and other ways to help us in these small communities. This affects everyone. It is killing 300 people a day and a lot of those are in the 18 to 25 age group. It's a tragedy."

But the progressives' border policy is "so radical, it's almost like they know what to do, but they're paralyzed by what could be done and [they] refuse to do it."

"We're hoping that we can take back the House and make sure that we hold them accountable and do something about protecting the American citizens," she added.

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