Republican 7th Congressional District nominee Mark Gonsalves called the proposition for IRS expansion made by the Biden administration “the definition of runaway democracy” and criticized his opponent, Lucy McBath, for her support of the incumbent president.
“Tuesday Trivia fact that’s real, believe it or not. Under Joe Biden, the IRS staff will be larger than the combined totals of the FBI, the Pentagon, the Border Patrol, and the State Department. That is the definition of runaway democracy,” Gonsalves tweeted in reference to the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
Gonsalves spoke to The Georgia Star News on Monday.
“Joe Biden’s runaway government, with the full support of my opponent, Lucy McBath, passed legislation that not only raises [taxes] on the middle class, but also increased the number of IRS agents by 87,000,” Gonsalves said.
In fiscal year 2021 (FY2021) the Internal Revenue Service had a $13.7 billion total in expenditures for its operations and 78,661 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees that conducted its work, which is a decrease of nearly 13 percent since 2012. However, the total number of people on the IRS payroll exceeds 80,000.
“They will now have more employees than the Pentagon, the State Department, the FBI, and Border Patrol combined!” Gonsalves said.
Gonsalves implied instead that federal spending priorities should focus on the southern border.
“We should all agree we need more border patrol agents rather than tax collectors targeting everyday Americans,” he said.
Gonsalves instead suggested a replacement of the IRS with a “FairTax.”
“Given the weaponizing of the IRS, we must replace the IRS with the FairTax. The FairTax originated right here in Georgia’s 7th District and would be a vast improvement,” Gonsalves said on Twitter. “I will keep the FairTax fight alive as your next member of Congress.”
Georgia House Rep. nominee Jenine Milum commented on a statement by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) that confirmed that at least $20 billion of the expected $124 billion in additional revenue expected by House Resolution 5376 (H.R. 5376) will come from lower and middle-income Americans.
“‘The IRS will grab at least $20 billion from the lower and middle class,’ As if you needed another reason to vote out Democrats this November. It’s critical we elect Herschel Walker and keep Brian Kemp in office,” Milum said in a tweet on Sunday.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) employs some 35,000 people and, in its FY2023 budget request, has asked for nearly $11 billion for its operations and nearly 37,000 employees, which is an increase of more than 1,000 employees.
The U.S. State Department employs 69,000 workers, and reported its FY2021 budget to be nearly $112 billion, with an 18 percent increase in total net operational costs.
United States Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) employs north of 60,000 employees and, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the budget for CBP’s fiscal year 2022 was $13.4 billion. Per the White House, the budget for FY2023 will be $15.3 billion.
The U.S. military describes the Pentagon as “virtually a city in itself” that hosts over 26,000 workers. However, the comptroller for the Department of Defense (DoD) does not indicate in its FY2023 budget request how much of its $813 billion fiscal budget would be allocated to the Pentagon itself.
The Georgia Star News reached out to the DoD via its media query line about the Pentagon’s budget but did not reach a response by press time as Christopher Sherwood, public affairs specialist as the assistant secretary of defense’s office was out of the office.
In total, the combined number of persons employed by the Pentagon, CBP, the FBI and the State Department exceeds 270,000.
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Addison Basurto is a reporter at The Georgia Star News and The Star News Network. Follow Addy on Twitter and GETTR. Email tips/inquiries to [email protected]
Photo “Mark Gonsalves” by Mark Gonsalves. Background Photo “Internal Revenue Service” by Joshua Doubek. CC BY-SA 3.0.
