| Dear Friend, Since 2010, Republican budget cuts have slashed IRS funding by 20% and reduced enforcement staff by 30%.(1) These moves have resulted in 54% fewer audits of large corporations and 70% fewer audits of millionaires. President Biden, and Democrats in Congress, have addressed this problem by allocating $80 billion over 10 years to the IRS in the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act. This money will be used to modernize IRS technology, improve customer service, and crack down on criminal millionaires and billionaires who aren’t paying $160 billion in taxes each year that they already owe.(2) Republicans know these changes will target their billionaire and corporate donors, so they’re turning to their old playbook -- lies and fear to distract the public from the truth. They’re claiming that the IRS is hiring tens of thousands of armed agents who are going to be knocking down the doors of small businesses and families across the U.S.
For almost a decade now, we’ve seen the damage that lies and disinformation do to our country. In 2016, it was Russian disinformation working hand in hand with Republican operatives both knowingly and unknowingly that helped lead to the Donald Trump presidency. At the end of 2020 and beginning of 2021, Donald Trump’s Big Lie drove the deadly January 6 attack on our Capitol. Recent lies around the FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort for classified documents have sparked threats and violence against FBI agents and attacks on local voting officials. Unchecked Republican lies happening right now on social media platforms about increased funding for the Internal Revenue Service are intended to scare American taxpayers and incite even more violence. The truth is they’re trying to protect their ultra-rich lawbreaking donors at all costs. New IRS funding will address criminal millionaire and billionaire tax evasion schemes, not send agents after everyday taxpayers, as Republicans claim. Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms know Republicans are lying -- and allowing fraud to go unchecked makes them accomplices in attacks on our government and public servants. That’s why we’re demanding action. Thank you for joining the fight. –Irene, along with Angela, Annie, Isidra, Jay, Lindsay, Mai, Mai, Raquel, and Scottie (the Courage team)
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