The Republicans in the US House of Representatives took a long time to agree on a Speaker last week. But having done so, they got down to addressing what they see as their business priorities. And as it turned out, that priority is defunding the US Internal Revenue Service (the IRS), which is the US federal tax authority.
Last year Biden gave the IRS £80 billion of new funding. The aim was to provide 87,000 new tax investigators, targeted solely on the wealthiest Americans. There was also a plan to update the IT used by the IRS, which is decades old. The object was, of course, to raise more revenue when the government was spending billions supporting the US economy. And so, as the Mail reports, the Republicans voted to cancel almost all this spend.
Republicans have made this a priority. They told their supporters the IRS was going to target low income America. That was never the plan. But they also made clear that they objected to the idea of more money being collected, per se. And in reality their legislation is aimed to appease their backers in wealthy America, who presumably want to continue their tax abuse.
The good news is that this law has almost no chance of passing the Democrat controlled Senate, so the existing law stays in place.
The significance is that it shows where the Republicans want to go. Anything that supports the wealthy against the government and so against the people of the US is good with them.
Why note this? Because anything the Republicans do the Tories seem anxious to copy. Tory stances on migration, austerity and much else are Republican inspired. I expect this one to be on their agenda soon. Hatred of the state is the one thing all on the far-right now seem to have in common.
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I agree Richard. And how long before they vote to stop US funding more weapons and equipment for Ukraine? Really worrying times……..
“They told their supporters the IRS was going to target low income America.”
There is your real problem. The ease with which Trumpist Republicans or Conservatives here can persuade the low paid to destroy their lives in order to benefit the Conservative Party and those who fund it. That was how Brexit was achieved.
In the digital age, on both sides of the Atlantic it has been discovered how easy it is to manipulate people, without anyone noticing. The real problem is, nobody knows how to fix that new problem.
Here is an (albeit ‘off thread’) example of the problem. This morning on BBC Radio (Nicky Campbell) I listened to someone who was furious at the nurses asking for a 19% pay rise (after Covid, after 12 years of austerity; note – a negotiating opener, not their likely expected final outcome, but nobody is negotiating). This critic then said his wife worked for minimum wage rates in the care sector. He was still outraged by nurses contemplating asking for a pay rise that did not actually reduce their standard of living.
There is the problem. Those who should understand they are being deceived by politicians who seek to exploit them, serve the interests of the exploiters.
The major crisis in A&E is the inability of hospitals to free beds because the care service cannot cope.
Funding for social care has only returned in 2022 to the levels of 2010-11. Social care is underfunded, there are huge staff shortages; 165,000 unfilled posts in 2021-2; +55,000 on 2020-21. The reason is twofold; pay, conditions and development are so poor it is an unattractive sector, and the pressures of work are encouraging carers to leave the sector for other employment. This makes it impossible to offer a service that would allow most elderly or disabled hospital patients to return home. There are now care homes so under staffed, they have empty rooms. The Government is now considering buying the empty rooms to stop the hospital ‘bed-blocking’, but even this unsatisfactory solution is not possible, because there are no staff to serve the rooms; because they pay and conditions are so bad….
Rinse and repeat for the NHS.
And still we have people in Britain, abused by a failed political ideology; stoutly defending it.
This John is known as ‘levelling down’ and Tim Snyder (yes, sorry to mention him again) points this out in his 2018 book ‘The Road to Unfreedom’ – these are the people whose lives have become so hard, that their only pleasure is seeing other people suffer like they have. It’s a total win for capital.
It’s pure fascism at work John, and it’s clever, rooted in identity politics. Discontent is the fuel of Fascism. The man with a carer is being exploited twice – by having his wife’s labour under valued and then having his faulty opinion being used against the nurses. The Right loves this sort of thing.
But who sticks up for the carers? It would be nice if Laboured did and roped them into a root and branch review and commitment to better pay.
The only bulwark against it is more economic equality or fairness provided by a courageous state.
But what a sick society we are that exploits things like this.
I stated the problem from a resource perspective; you restated it as an identity issue. Neither cuts any ice with the problematic electorate. We could argue Brexit from the same perspectives: it makes no difference. For politicians these are taboo subjects: ‘take back control’ (it means whatever you want it to mean, for any subject from immigration to ‘levelling up’, whatever that means as functional policy; which is why Labour is using it); or Government financing and the ‘household budget’ (need I go on?).
I do not advocate independence for Scotland in order to wave a Salture. It has become the only way out of insanity; and there is not the least sign that it will change; even if Labour acquires some power after another two years of Conservative trashing everything in sight.
I’ve spoken of war on this blog – the sophisticated war of the rich and their money-power against society – the only possible curb to their ambition and greed.
And here we have it again – reified by this latest attempted coup in the U.S.
It’s might also be a good time we all read Edward Bernay’s book ‘Propoganda’ so that we know what it coming.
According to the Royal College of Nursing, “Experienced nurses’ salary has fallen 20% in real terms since 2010”.
So for every £100 they were getting in 2010, it is now worth £80. To restore its value, they would need a 25% salary increase. Perhaps it is the government that needs the extra maths lessons.
Well said Ian Tresman.
But it’s not that they can’t do the math, it’s because – looking through the lens provided by Clara Mattei – they don’t want to because they know that what they are doing satisfies the money-powerful – and that means party funding.
Yes – our politicians are that simple.
Interestingly, the Republicans are reported has having ambitions to abolish both the IRS and Income Tax. And, it’s claimed, replace the tax with a transaction tax. I think it’s safe to assume they aren’t referring to financial transactions (i.e. a Tobin Tax) so presumably some sort of GST. Obviously that would be a highly regressive move, but I wonder who it is they think are going to administer the tax and how it will interact with the numerous sales tax regimes that exist at state level and below?