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IA-Sen: Crazy Old Man Grassley (R) Is Encouraging Violence Against IRS Agents [1]
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Date: 2022-08-14
Crazy fuck:
“Given the social media chatter we’re already seeing, it’s all too easy to imagine individuals using these conspiracy theories as justification for violence against public servants and their families,” Wyden said in the statement.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said in a statement Friday that the “incendiary conspiracy theories Republicans are pushing about armed IRS agents are increasingly dangerous and out of control . High-ranking Republicans are saying shockingly irresponsible things,” he added.
“ Contrary to the misinformation from opponents of this legislation, small business or households earning $400,000 per year or less will not see an increase in the chances that they are audited,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen wrote to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig Thursday.
Critics complained that such claims are not only flatly false, but dangerous for agents.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) falsely warned that a “new army of 87,000 IRS will be coming for you” if you “make $75,000 or less.”
“I think they’re going after middle-class and small-business people, because basically they think ... they aren’t paying their fair share, and we’re going to go after them,” he added.
“Are they going to have a strike force that goes in with AK-15s already loaded, ready to shoot some small-business person in Iowa?” Grassley asked Thursday on “ Fox & Friends .”
Funding and tax changes are part of the Inflation Reduction Act , which next heads to the White House where President Joe Biden will sign it into law .
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) wildly claimed that IRS agents armed with assault-style rifles were preparing to show up on Americans’ doorsteps to audit their taxes once the agency has an additional $80 billion to enforce the law and sniff out cheats.
Critics are slamming Republicans for now attacking Internal Revenue Service agents just days after targeting the FBI .
Here’s some context:
x “The problem is the increasingly blurry line between the fringe and prominent Republican voices.” #IASen #GrassleyDoesNotWork
https://t.co/tuQJSaJ0J9 — Admiral Mike Franken (@FrankenforIowa) August 13, 2022
First, the senator probably meant AR-15s, not AK-15s. Second, as Grassley probably knows, the IRS has already made it explicitly clear, in writing, that its focus will be on suspected corporate and high-income tax evaders, not “middle-class and small-business people.”
But more important is the picture the Iowa Republican painted for Fox News viewers: IRS officials, Grassley suggested, aren’t just going to enforce existing laws, they might also target small-business owners with assault rifles, "ready to shoot."
It’s the kind of rhetoric that appears designed to convince the public — or at least certain portions of the public — that IRS employees should be perceived as armed and potentially dangerous.
As a Washington Post analysis added yesterday, there’s plenty of related talk on the political fringe. The problem is the increasingly blurry line between the fringe and prominent Republican voices.
[END]
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