Senate Republicans shamelessly voted to protect tax cheats. That’s right — while Democrats work to lower costs and ensure corporations and the ultra wealthy pay their fair share, Republicans have worked tirelessly to let them keep lining their pockets. 

This isn’t a partisan issue: 73 percent of Americans, including majorities across party lines, support tougher crackdowns on corporations and the ultra-wealthy who are avoiding paying the taxes they owe. 

And in case there was any confusion: The Inflation Reduction Act targets large corporations and ultra-wealthy tax cheats, not working Americans.

Yahoo News: “‘These resources are absolutely not about increasing audit scrutiny on small businesses or middle-income Americans…’ Rather, [IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig] says the funds from the reconciliation package will help the IRS get back to historical norms and crack down on large corporate and global high-net worth taxpayers… Rettig says the IRS needs more sophisticated specialized teams to pick through these complex structures.”

New York Times: “Charles P. Rettig, the Internal Revenue Service commissioner, told Congress on Thursday that the tax collection agency would not increase audits of households earning less than $400,000 if it was given the additional $80 billion that lawmakers were considering in a proposed climate and tax legislation package.”

The IRS provisions alone will bring down the federal deficit by $203 billion. Why? Because previous Republican administrations have starved the agency of the resources it needs to go after tax cheats. 

Washington Post: “GOP policies… [deprived] the agency of the resources it would have taken to go after wealthier targets who shelter potentially much higher sums.”

Washington Post: “An analysis conducted by the Congressional Budget Office, the legislature’s nonpartisan bookkeeper, found the IRS provisions would knock $203 billion off the federal deficit, far more than what Democrats expected when they introduced the bill.”

Let’s not forget — led by Mitch McConnell, Senate Republicans gifted massive handouts to corporations and the ultra-wealthy with the Trump Tax Cuts in 2017. Make no mistake: The GOP is the party of fiscal irresponsibility, and they just chose to side with tax cheats over the American people.