DeLauro Votes Against GOP Bill Enabling Billionaire Tax Cheats

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-03) today voted against legislation introduced by House Republicans that would gut the Internal Revenue Services (IRS) and strip the agency of the necessary resources to ensure billionaires and big corporations pay their fair share of taxes.

“The first bill brought to the floor by the Republican majority makes clear where they stand: with tax cheats, billionaires and the biggest corporations who do not pay taxes,” said Congresswoman DeLauro. “While Americans live paycheck to paycheck and struggle with the rising cost of living, House Republicans’ number one priority is to ensure billionaires and big corporations are allowed to continue business as usual. These tax cheats take advantage of a broken system to not pay taxes, and everyday Americans are stuck footing the bill. I voted against this legislation and urge my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to work seriously to move solutions, like the Child Tax Credit, that will bring down costs for working- and middle-class families – not billionaires and corporations.” 

The legislation brought to the floor by House Republicans rescinds critical funding that would allow the IRS to crack down on tax evasion by the ultra-rich and corporations, while adding $114 billion to the deficit. This would dismantle a key component of the Inflation Reduction Act, which would reduce costs for hardworking middle-class families and ensure that taxpayers are not left paying for wealthy tax cheats who avoid paying little to no taxes.

Working people pay 99 percent of the taxes they owe, while the top 1 percent hide more than 20 percent of their income from the IRS each year. A government analysis estimates that the wealthiest 400 billionaire families in America paid an average of just 8.2 percent of their income in Federal individual income taxes between 2010 and 2018. That’s a much lower rate than most Americans. 

According to a report from the Department of Treasury, the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans are the nation’s most egregious tax evaders – failing to pay as much as $163 billion in owed taxes per year. The annual tax gap – the difference between what Americans should be paying and what they actually send to IRS – is estimated to amount to $7 trillion in unpaid taxes over a decade.