In response to MAGA Mike tying funding for Israel to rolling back deficit-reducing provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act that ensure the ultra-wealthy and mega corporations pay their fair share of taxes just like working and middle class families do, DNC spokesperson Sarafina Chitika released the following statement: 

“MAGA Mike’s first foray as speaker shows Americans where he stands: on the side of big corporations and the ultra-wealthy, at the expense of hardworking families and our allies around the world. Mike Johnson is toeing the MAGA party line with a disastrous plan that would add to our deficit, give a hall pass to corporate tax cheats, and undermine the safety of our allies around the world by holding up critical aid. At a time when President Biden is providing steady leadership at home and abroad, MAGA Republicans on the campaign trail and in the halls of Congress are proving once again that they’re too dangerous and out of touch to lead.”

MAGA Mike hit the ground running by holding up Israel aid to advance his own agenda — attempting to give the ultra-wealthy a hall pass at the expense of our working families and our allies abroad.

Forbes: “New House Speaker Mike Johnson Ties Funding For Israel To IRS Budget Cuts”

HuffPost: “To Pay For Israeli Aid, GOP Wants To Make It More Expensive For You To File Your Taxes”

NBC News: “A new bill House Republicans released Monday includes $14.3 billion in emergency funding for Israel while rescinding the same amount of IRS funding from the Inflation Reduction Act, a major climate, health care and tax law Biden signed last year.”

Johnson’s plan to cut IRS funding from the Inflation Reduction Act is yet another example of Republicans’ extreme MAGAnomics agenda — it would cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans while adding BILLIONS to the deficit.

Semafor: “The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget said the GOP bill would add about $30 billion in red ink over a decade. Other independent analyses indicate IRS funding provides at least a two-fold return from stepping up audits on the ultra-rich.”

Steven Rattner, MSNBC economic analyst: “Cutting funds from the IRS *costs* the government money in the form of lost revenue. That is not an offset.”

Rattner: “To reiterate: offsetting gov’t spending by cutting the IRS budget is like offsetting a fire with gasoline.”

NBC News: “The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has projected that the funds [for the IRS from the Inflation Reduction Act] will ‘increase revenues by approximately $200 billion’ over a decade.”

Johnson’s proposal is in line with Donald Trump and other 2024 Republicans who have repeatedly railed against the Inflation Reduction Act and proposed eliminating it entirely.

Insider: “Former President Donald Trump on Friday slammed the Democratic-led climate, health, and tax bill, arguing that Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky was ‘taken for a ride’ by Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia.”

Haley: “[The Inflation Reduction Act] is a communist manifesto.”

DeSantis: “You know, the good thing is I think there’s a pretty clear path to being able to reverse a lot of this stuff. The things he’s doing through executive order, you could reverse right away. But even what they did with the Inflation Reduction Act, they passed that via budget reconciliation in the Senate. So with 50 votes, I think, you know, we win the presidency, I’m pretty sure we would win the Senate and keep the House. And so at that case, what they put in by reconciliation, you could repeal by reconciliation.”

Scott: “I would simply eliminate the IRA, the Inflation Reduction Act, which of course, is a lie from the pit of hell. … I would start the process of gutting that legislation.” 

Christie: “The Inflation Reduction Act was a mistake.”

Burgum on whether he would push to repeal the IRA: “Yeah.”

KARK: “In a statement Thursday, Gov. Asa Hutchinson came out in opposition to the Inflation Reduction Act, currently under debate in the senate. The act, a significant part of the Biden presidential agenda, puts billions of dollars into energy extraction and IRS enforcement, as well as health care reforms in Medicare drug pricing and Affordable Care Act extension.”

Johnson’s MAGAnomics plan to cut taxes for the ultra-wealthy comes as 2024 Republicans are vowing to make permanent Donald Trump’s tax giveaways for the ultra-wealthy that left working families behind.

CBS News: “Two years after Trump tax cuts, middle-class Americans are falling behind”

The Guardian: “They were billed as a ‘middle-class miracle’ but according to a new book Donald Trump’s $1.5tn tax cuts have helped billionaires pay a lower rate than the working class for the first time in history.”

Trump on whether his second-term tax policies would echo those of his first term: “Yeah, and I’d do even more taxes.”

DeSantis: “The current rates that are due to expire, we want to keep those rates in place.” 

Brian Sullivan: “You’d keep those cuts going?”

DeSantis: “Yeah, we don’t want to see increases in taxes.”

Scott: “That 2017 tax reform bill—I was one of the four key authors of that bill. I’m excited about continuing to extend and making permanent those tax cuts.”

Haley: “Well, I think what I’d like to see is us go back to what Trump had under the tax cuts under him … I was there.”

Christie: “First of all, we need to extend the Trump tax cuts. I think those need to be extended.”

Ramaswamy on making permanent or expanding the Trump tax cuts: “I’d go a little further, Larry, than that, to be honest with you.”

Burgum in 2018: “I believe in these economic policies, I believe the tax bill is a great thing.”

Hutchinson in 2018: “​​President Trump’s #SOTU speech was good news for Arkansas as conservative policy changes in D.C. have led to tax cuts.”