In one of the weirdest scenes I’ve ever heard about happening on Capitol Hill, Democrats left the House floor in tears on Thursday. I don’t mean that in a hyperbolic fashion. I mean that there were Democrats who literally started crying.
What got them so worked up? Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republicans passed a bill to fully fund aid to Israel by using unspent increases in IRS funding.
.@kadiagoba on Jewish Dems leaving the House floor in tears last night pic.twitter.com/xxY0o7JmV2
— Ben Smith (@semaforben) November 3, 2023
So let me get this straight. These Jewish Democrats aren’t brought to tears by the fact that their own colleagues, including Rashida Tlaib and Cori Bush, are actively showing support for Hamas. Yet, relatively small spending cuts for the IRS are their breaking point? Does that make sense to anyone?
The context here is an $80 billion increase in funding for the IRS passed as part of the laughably named Inflation Reduction Act. As I wrote back in July, citing the government’s own numbers, that “investment” has been a total bust. The amount of unpaid taxes recouped by increased enforcement is infinitesimal compared to the amount of taxpayer money that was spent and will be spent.
I can hear the retorts now. “But that $80 billion will help fund increased enforcement for decades!” First of all, no it won’t. IRS funding will inevitably be increased at some point during that period because nothing in government ever remains static. Secondly, even if you assume IRS funding remains at its current level, garnering an extra $38 million every few months (I’m assuming that means three to four months) means it would still take hundreds of years for taxpayers to break even.
In other words, Johnson and company simply took money that was going to be completely wasted and shifted it over to help re-arm Israel in its war with Hamas. How is that a bad thing? How is that worthy of crying over?
The argument will be that this House bill is DOA in the Senate. That’s fine, but why must the Republican House bend the knee to a one-seat margin in the Senate? Why don’t these Democrats push Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to negotiate offsets in order to get the aid to Israel?
I know the answer, or at least, I think I do. This is really about Ukraine funding. Democrats and some Republicans in the Senate are obsessed with tying Ukrainian aid to Israeli aid despite the conflicts being completely disconnected. Ukraine has already received hundreds of billions of dollars in worldwide aid, and that conflict is now in a stalemate nearly two years later. In comparison, Israel has the military ability to wipe Hamas out in short order. The dynamics are simply not the same.
Regardless of the reason, though, being brought to tears and accusing Johnson of not following the Bible over cutting IRS funding is comical. Where in the Bible does it talk about foreign aid and the IRS? The entire meltdown is stupid and juvenile. I don’t doubt these Jewish Democrats want to help Israel, but they need to hold their own party accountable instead of pointing fingers at those actually trying to get money sent there.
