Last updated on July 18th, 2023 at 01:35 pm

Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) admitted that increased IRS enforcement against wealthy tax cheats was dropped because Senate Republicans complained.

Sen. Rob Portman Said Republicans Got Pushback On The Idea Of Beefing Up The IRS To Go After Wealthy Tax Cheats

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Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) admits that Republicans have removed increased IRS enforcement to go after wealthy tax cheats from the bipartisan infrastructure bill. pic.twitter.com/VBRQee3X6A

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— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) July 18, 2021

Sen. Rob Portman said on CNN’s State Of The Union:

Well, one reason it’s not part of the proposal is we did have pushback. Another reason is that we found out that the Democrats were going to put a proposal into the reconciliation package, which was not just similar to the one we had, but with a lot moreIRS enforcement. So, that created quite a problem because the general agreement is that this is the bipartisan negotiated infrastructure package and we will stick with that. And president Biden, to his credit, said we will not be renegotiating these items in the reconciliation package. 

….

 Originally, the infrastructure package that President Biden put forward was twice as big as ours in terms of core infrastructure. So, you know, they have different ideas on this. We have a bipartisan process here. It’s a compromise between both sides. Both sides make concessions. We want to stick with that. 

In terms of IRS reform or IRStax gap, which was what was in the original proposal, that will no longer be in our proposal. It will be in the larger reconciliation bill, we’re told.

Republicans Don’t Want The Wealthy And Corporations To Pay Their Fair Share

The process of negotiating and putting the infrastructure bills has been illuminating in that it shows the American people what the Republican Party actually stands for.

The only part of Portman’s answer that matters is his claim that Republicans got pushback on giving the IRS more funding to go after rich tax cheats.

The Republican Party is protecting rich people at the expense of everyone else.

Democrats will make the wealthy and corporations pay their share, and they will do it without any Republican votes because Democrats are the only party that is looking out for working and poor Americans.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association