Louisiana Rep. Clay Higgins vowed to Newsmax on Wednesday that Republicans will, next year when they have the majority in the House following the midterms, defund President Joe Biden's "Inflation Reduction Act" that Biden signed into law on Tuesday, because it will raise taxes on middle-income Americans.
The Louisiana Republican said, during an appearance on Newsmax's "National Report" that the Biden administration lies in its explanation of how the new climate change and healthcare legislation is going to be funded.
Although the administration claims that the $740 billion cost of the act will be paid for by raising taxes only on wealthy corporations and those Americans earning more than 400,000, the Congressional Budget Office has said the act would cost the middle class approximately $20 billion from taxes collected by increased IRS enforcement.
"Every legitimate interpretation of this massive tax-and-spend bill is that Americans earning $75,000 and less are going to see an increase in auditing," Higgins said, since one of the components of the legislation is that there will be 87,000 more enforcement agents to carry out this task.
He emphasized that "the tax enforcement effort within this bill is going to focus on low-income Americans," explaining, "that's where most of the money is. You can seize 100% of the income of what all Americans earning over $400,000 make and you would not put a dent in what the Democratic agenda here is on this bill."
Higgins declared that Republicans "are going to defund it next year when we are the majority ... especially the 87,000 IRS agents, I assure you of that."
He also said his party would ultimately seek to repeal the legislation, although he acknowledged that getting rid of an existing law will be much more difficult.
Higgins said that this comes at a most inopportune time for his constituents and "would be a crippling blow right now," as they are regular American families trying to make it and struggling to do so."
He added that the current administration has already contributed to the woes of his constituents by the sharp rise of inflation during Biden's term in office and "this administration's war on the oil and gas industry," which is a major source of income for families in Louisiana.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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