The White House issued its first (of what promises to be many) veto threat over this bill, based on that CBO score and the fact that it’s entirely rich people the GOP is protecting here, even though they call this bill the “Family and Small Business Taxpayer Protection Act.” The White House’s Office of Management and Budget pointed out in the veto advisory that “the Treasury Secretary has already directed that none of the additional IRS resources be used to increase audit rates relative to historical levels for small businesses or households with incomes below $400,000.”
“Far from protecting middle-class families or small businesses, H.R. 23 protects wealthy tax cheats at the expense of honest, middle-class taxpayers,” the OMB statement reads. “Each year the top one percent hides about 20 percent of their income from the government so they can get away with not paying any tax on it. That means that working people—who report 99 percent of their income to the IRS—pay a larger share of collected taxes than they should.”
“If the President were presented with H.R. 23—or any other bill that enables the wealthiest Americans and largest corporations to cheat on their taxes, while honest and hard-working Americans are left to pay the tab—he would veto it,” it added.
