Whereas, The Inflation Reduction Act will allow nearly five hundred billion dollars in new spending by our federal government over the next decade, with almost eighty billion dollars being directed to the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) budget. The budget allocations of this law spell out the current Administration’s big-government intentions for the future of the IRS. Over forty-five billion dollars will be directed to “enforcement” while a meager three billion is expected to be used for “taxpayer services.” As part of these budgetary expansions, the IRS would hire eighty-seven thousand new employees, making this agency larger than the FBI, Pentagon, State Department, and Border Patrol combined. This Act is not intended to benefit Americans – it is just the latest development in this Administration’s police state agenda; and
Whereas, This bloating of the IRS’s budget and staff also comes at the same time Americans are learning of the massive stockpiling of weapons and ammunition by the government agency. The latest data, released in a 2020 report analyzing the militarization of federal agencies in years prior, found that the IRS had thousands of rifles, shotguns, pistols, and submachine guns as well as an arsenal of over five million rounds of ammunition. Additionally, a 2017 report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found that the IRS’s Criminal Investigation Division repeatedly violated the civil rights of Americans under the guise of enforcing tax laws and seizing taxpayer property. Michiganders are right to fear a massive budget expansion for a tax collection agency that feels it necessary to arm itself to the teeth in pursuit of collecting our citizens’ hard-earned money with little to no restraint; and
Whereas, In 1974, then-President Gerald Ford warned Congress that “[a] government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.” This Administration represents just the latest installment in a half-century long tradition of paying no heed to past generations’ commonsense understanding that government should play a minimal role in our lives. As the only President who was a fellow Michigander, it is appropriate for our citizens to take seriously President Ford’s warning and strongly condemn this massive expansion of a federal agency that only exists by virtue of our collective tax dollars. The Inflation Reduction Act would hand over tens of billions of dollars to create an IRS big enough – and well-armed enough – to take whatever it wants from our citizens whenever it pleases; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Senate, That we condemn the expansion of the Internal Revenue Service through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022; and be it further
Resolved, That copies of this resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the President of the United States Senate, and the members of the Michigan congressional delegation.
Pending the order that, under rule 3.204, the resolution be referred to the Committee on Government Operations ,
Senator Lauwers moved that the rule be suspended.
The motion prevailed, a majority of the members serving voting therefor.
The question being on the adoption of the resolution,
Senator Barrett requested the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered, 1/5 of the members present voting therefor.
The resolution was adopted, a majority of the members voting therefor, as follows: