Jared Bernstein, a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, stated on MSNBC’s “Katy Tur Reports” on Wednesday that while it isn’t the ideal time to discuss where the White House believes spending should be cut, we can discuss “raising the income that is owing to us” through IRS enforcement to “make certain that individuals are paying, particularly those in the top 1%, paying what they owe.”
“What would be on the table for a debate like that,” host Katy Tur questioned after Bernstein said that the White House would welcome talking expenditure cuts, just not in the context of lifting the debt ceiling? “Where might money be cut? Is it investigating the Defense budget, or the Pentagon’s budget, which is widely acknowledged to be a huge money hole in which a lot of money simply isn’t properly accounted for due to security concerns or other factors?”
“A good moment to have that dialogue will come around budget time when we discuss what is and isn’t on the table,” Bernstein said in response. “However, I believe that one topic we can discuss right now is just increasing the amount of money owing to us, especially in light of the House Republicans’ recent ideas. As a result, the first item that House Republicans declared they planned to approve involved eliminating the Inflation Reduction Act-related funding for the IRS. Currently, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that this idea would increase the deficit by 115 billion dollars. In order to increase the budget deficit by nearly $100 billion, these so-called fiscal hawks want to first allow wealthy tax evaders to get away with their crimes. Once more, this goes completely against what the president wants to do and is inconsistent with tax equity. Making sure people are paying what they owe, especially those in the top 1%, is a good place to start. I’m not going to discuss spending with you right now while we’re here in this room.”
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