Republicans continue to be laser-focused on a single issue:—protecting the wealthiest from paying their fair share in taxes, and Democrats keep caving.

In 2022, we fought for and won an $80 billion investment in the IRS over 10 years, and this funding has already done a tremendous amount of good. But, in order to raise the debt ceiling, Democrats made a handshake deal in May to cut $20 billion of that funding, and now Republicans smell blood in the water and are demanding more IRS cuts be included in must-pass government funding bills this month.

The GOP’s claim that this is about fiscal responsibility is a ridiculous lie. Research shows that for every $1 spent on making sure that wealthy tax cheats pay what they owe, we see, on average, a $22 return. Cuts to IRS funding will result in less revenue while increasing the federal deficit by at least $114 billion over 10 years, which Republicans will use as an excuse to slash critically needed programs like Social Security, Medicare, and other programs.

The new increase in IRS funding has already allowed the agency to better serve the American people while cracking down on wealthy and corporate tax cheats. Thanks to this investment, the IRS has:

• Cut phone wait times from 28 minutes to just 3 minutes and allowed the IRS to answer 3 million more phone calls in 2023 than the year before;

• Developed additional services for taxpayers such as the Direct File pilot program, which will allow taxpayers to keep more of their tax returns by using a free easy-to-use system instead of a paid tax filing system while also ensuring more working people are able to access the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit;

• Provided the IRS with the resources to crack down on wealthy and corporate tax cheats, collecting $160 million from millionaire tax cheats last year, notifying Microsoft that it owes $29 billion in taxes, and announcing the audits of 60 giant corporations that together make more than $500 billion in profits each year;

And yet, Democrats caved when they agreed to cut $20 billion over 2 years, and it seems like they’re agreeing to even more aggressive cuts in order to pass the government funding bill.

Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson’s attempts to cut this vital IRS funding make one thing very clear: he will do anything just to protect mega-rich tax cheats. Democrats need to send an equally clear message: This is the line in the sand. No more cuts to the IRS.

Add your name to demand Congress reject cuts to the IRS, which harm working people while letting wealthy and corporate tax cheats off the hook.