Abolish the IRS? How Republicans are keeping up attacks on the tax agency

Washington CNN —

Congressional Republicans and some GOPpresidential candidates are continuing to target the Internal Revenue Service – a longtime political punching bag – after Democrats bolstered the agency with billions in new funding meant to help modernize the nation’s tax collector.

Most recently, Republican lawmakers secured a concession from Democrats to speed up a $20 billion cut, previously agreed to last June to avoid a US default.

Rather than cut $10 billion this year and another $10 billion next year from the IRS, all $20 billion would be rescinded in 2024 under an agreement reached Sunday on 2024 top-line budget numbers. The deal is a key first step to avoid a looming, partial government shutdown, but plenty of work remains before lawmakers reach a broader deal on afinal 2024 spending bill.

Meanwhile, Republicanpresidential candidates Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy have suggested they would gut the IRS, along with some other federal agencies.

Last week during a CNN town hall, DeSantis went as far as to say that he would eliminate the IRS and replace the nation’s tax code with one flat tax, which would require all taxpayers to pay the same federal tax rate.

Republicans chip away at Democrats’ $80 billion boost

Democrats have taken a different approach than Republicans by making it a priority to increase funding for the IRS. The Inflation Reduction Act, which passed in 2022 without any Republican votes, approved about $80 billion for the IRS over a 10-year period.

Democrats say the money is meant to help the IRS ramp up its enforcement efforts on high-income taxpayers as well as improve its archaic taxpayer services system. The Biden administration has repeatedly said that taxpayers earning