It's a pretty hollow threat. Including Israel funding was the bait in the bill to get house Republicans to go along with more Ukraine funding too, which they have all decided they want to cut off and hand over to Russia. If they cut out Ukraine funding, and try to randomly drag the IRS in it too, this is just dead in the water. I do worry how they're gonna get house Republicans to agree to more Ukraine funding though.
This "I'll block something super unrelated until you do my thing that goes against voter's interests" thing alone is a reason not to vote for those moneybags... Undemocratic as fuck!
Want to find the money? Increase the ability of the IRS to perform more audits. The richest folks are already not paying the taxes they should be. $688 billion per year!
Yes, but Moscow Mitch serves the richest elite who have rewarded him handsomely over his career. So he can't allow them to be audited or taxed if he can help it.
McConnell is not trying to tie Ukraine/Israel military aid to IRS funding. He is trying to tie military aid to increased funding for border security. And he might well succeed, especially as cities like Chicago are starting to complain about immigration.
it's a shame the US establishment is so beholden to their proxy genocide. If you were a decent person with principles this would be an amazing time to say 'okay' and then just walk away from the negotiating table having given none of our money to either the fabulously wealthy or genocidal dictators.
We already give ample support to Israel... and we've seen them recently trying to bully us if we don't support them against any and all boycotts due to their activities. https://www.congress.gov/116/bills/s1/BILLS-116s1pcs.pdf
They don't need more support than they're getting, especially at this price point.
Zelenskyy has also tried to bully us, for example blocking gas pipelines from Russia to the EU and then blaming it on the Russians. I get it since they're on the defensive and desperate to protect their home, but it's still obnoxious since we should be and already are supporting them. That being said, Ukraine isn't also bombing refugee camps full of innocent people. The EU also really needs to ween off of Russian fossil fuels anyway. The Israel-Hamas conflict, by contrast, reeks of ESH and I wish we weren't so invested in either side.
EDIT: Just making it clear for those that didn't read the above very closely: Ukraine deserves support. It just doesn't change the fact that Zelenskyy has tried to twist arms for that support, for better or worse.
"In fiscal year 2020, the IRS collected almost $3.5 trillion in revenue and processed more than 240 million tax returns. The IRS spent just 35 cents for each $100 it collected in FY 2020. (Source: Table 31, IRS 2020 Data Book)."
Yeah I’m increasingly pro IRS. Taxation is a fundamental part of a functioning society. In a democracy we decide how our taxes contribute to our society. This isn’t like some king got greedy. I may not like Everything about how we spend that money, but I support us collecting what we decide is owed. As I get older and contribute more I support it more.
Our taxes at work. I'd much rather defund Israel and just continue supporting Ukraine. Take all that money we send to Israel and use it to fix our own problems.
And isn't it terribly interesting that new speaker Mike Johnson's disclosures don't include any bank accounts? For a lawyer that's been working for cash-rich groups like he has been, that's certainly interesting. Given the company he's been keeping (lots of dark money, lots of shady finances) it's just soooo interesting that his first demand is that the IRS not have adequate funding to audit people with shady financial dealings
They lost all sympathy and stopped deserving aid the minute they decided that bombing a hospital was a good place to start. And if they've got the money to turn refugee camps into literal craters, they clearly don't need the money for humanitarian needs either. If their citizens need help, then lob a few less bombs Gaza's way and use that money for humanitarian aid instead. Then Biden should say that "while the US continues to consider Israel a regional and military ally, we cannot condone their response to the attack by Hamas. And since Gaza is run by Hamas, which is a terror organization, it is is the position of the US to remain neutral in this conflict outside of providing humanitarian aid. While we renounce the actions taken by Hamas, the response by Israel is not something we consider acceptable either. "
Biden is going to learn, quickly and the hard way, that taking one side or the other in this is just going to piss off at least one core group of supporters one way or the other. And while taking no position is probably going to piss off at least some people from both groups, it's probably the least bad option available to him right now.
The hospital bombing is unclear; some sources are saying an Israeli bomb, some sources are saying a Hamas rocket that misfired, and it's not clear which is accurate yet. OTOH, Israel has admitted to bombing a refugee camp due to "Hamas tunnels underneath", so...
She drew attention to the impact on civilian infrastructure in Gaza, stating that the World Health Organization (WHO) has said that 34 attacks have been reported against health-care facilities, including 21 hospitals. Twelve of Gaza’s 35 hospitals, which are also being used as shelters for displaced people, can no longer function
Take a look at the damage done to that hospital. That wasn't done by an errant misfire of a rocket from a rocket launcher that was probably decades old and/or just some kind of homemade improvised device.
Israel at first was at least trying to hide behind plausible deniability, And then just decided to scrap that idea and not bother trying to hide the fact that they're just going to nuke and pave the whole damn place, civilians be damned.
I would have been more willing to believe Israel if they hadn't spent the entire time since October 7th committing even worse atrocities.
Love the downvotes right around the same time as this measure passes the House of Representatives, sorry yall haven't seen the pattern yet but they're not exactly hiding it from us.