OPINION | This article contains commentary that reflects the author's opinion.
Joe Biden reportedly thinks the IRS plan to raise taxes is “screwed up.”
Discussing the massive $3.5 trillion spending bill, Democrat Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia said, “The president and I had this conversation.”
“I said, ‘Mister President, I don’t know who put this out, but that’s screwed up,’” Manchin said about the proposal.
“Do you understand how messed up that is?” Manchin said he told Biden. “This cannot happen. It’s screwed up.”
“[Biden] says, ‘I think Joe [Manchin] is right on that,’” Manchin said. “So, I think that one’s going to be gone.”
Democrats are hoping to pay their massive spending plan, in part, by catching tax cheats who are allegedly trying to hide money in various bank accounts in order to underpay taxes.
The bill would require banks to report inflows and outflows of all accounts with a certain amount of activity each year.
The number was originally $600, which would impact nearly every American.
After major backlash, Democrats raised the limit to $10,000 in aggregate transactions before an account must be reported.
“Even if it’s $10,000 that’s only $800, $900 a [month],” Manchin said, according to the Daily Mail.
Manchin would later confirm there was no reporting threshold he would find supportable, Western Journal notes.
ABC News reported that Manchin made these comments during an interview with David Rubenstein, president of the Economic Club of Washington, D.C.
Radical Democrats have been pushing for the largest single spending bill in history of $3.5 trillion, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Democrats have proposed $2.9 trillion in tax hikes. It’s the “biggest tax increase in history,” Newsmax reported.
It’s certainly the largest tax increase in decades, which is meant to pay for the Democrats’ higher spending in their ‘reconciliation’ package. As history has proven over and over again, the Democrats’ proposal for taxes and spending will undoubtedly have a negative impact by discouraging Americans from working, saving, investing, and innovating.
Moderate Democrats, such as Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, has refused to support the legislation.
More from Western Journal:
On Sept. 16, Biden praised the provision in a speech, according to Fox Business.
“It would ask just for two pieces of information from the banks of these folks — the amounts that come into their bank accounts and the amounts that go out of their bank accounts,” Biden said, adding it was so people would “pay what they owe, what the existing tax code calls for.”
According to West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin — an ardent opponent of the provision and a vote the Democrats will need if the spending bill stands any chance of getting through the Senate — the president appears to be backing away from that position.
BANK REPORTING : @Sen_JoeManchin clarifies to me he opposed bank reporting no matter what the threshold. “No one should be in anyones bank account “
— Erik Wasson (@elwasson) October 26, 2021
Granted, this is just based on a report about what Biden privately said to Manchin. The problem is that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, when last we checked, still insisted the reporting requirement was staying in the spending bill, which originated in her House of Representatives.
During a media briefing on Oct. 12, a reporter said “Americans are starting to be worried about this” provision and asked whether “giving the IRS more money to crack down on unpaid taxes is going to stay in the reconciliation bill?”
When Pelosi answered affirmatively, the reporter then asked what the speaker would say to concerned Americans.
“Yes. Well, I mean, with all due respect, the plural of ‘anecdote’ is not ‘data.’ I’ve said that before here,” Pelosi said, according to a transcript.
“Yes, there are concerns that some people have. But if people are breaking the law and not paying their taxes, one way to track them is through the banking measure. I think $600 — but that’s a negotiation that will go on as to what the amount is. But, yes.”
