The Washington Post’s chief fact-checker Glenn Kessler blasted GOP lawmakers on Twitter Thursday, accusing them of "preying on people’s fears" of Internal Revenue Service audits after Republicans railed against news that the IRS would be hiring thousands of new agents.
Though Kessler's critics on Twitter didn’t buy it and accused him of "shilling" for the Biden administration.
Last week, Fox News Digital reported on the IRS updates proposed in the Inflation Reduction Act, claiming, "The proposed expansion includes an $80 billion boost to the IRS over a 10-year period, with more than half intended to help the agency crack down on tax evasion. If the bill is passed, the money allotted would go toward filling 87,000 IRS positions."
In addition, an IRS job listing posted before passing of the legislation stoked fear among Republicans because it stated that applicants to the new IRS positions should "Carry a firearm and be willing to use deadly force, if necessary." Though, according to the Washington Post, that line has since been removed from the job listing.
Conservative commentators and GOP lawmakers looking at these facts have warned of an IRS crackdown on average Americans in the near future.
However, Kessler accused pundits and leaders of spreading fear about the agency. On Thursday he shared an article from his Washington Post colleague Marianna Sotomayer and commented, "My colleague @MariannaReports has a good report about how the GOP falsehood of ‘87,000 armed IRS agents’ in Biden's bill is gaining traction despite it being totally wrong."
He continued the Twitter thread with a plug for his own fact-check of the claim from last week. "I had fact checked this last week, as had other fact-checkers. The bill calls for 87,000 employees over ten years, many of whom will replace the 50,000 retiring in five years. Net increase in IRS staff: 25 percent, still below what it once had been...."
Kessler then insisted that the GOP was trying to drum up its voters’ fear of the IRS, stating, "The GOP is preying on people's fears of an audit -- which is practically nil (and 80 percent of which are just an exchange of letters)."
"The stated goal is crack down on well-heeled tax cheats, not ordinary Americans, to close a tax gap estimated at $381 billion a year," he added, further trying to discredit critics as alarmists.
Twitter users mocked Kessler for defending the IRS. The Spectator contributing editor Stephen L. Miller tweeted, "’You should trust the IRS’ - journalism in the year 2022."
Internet video database Grabien.com founder Tom Elliot slammed the fact-checker, tweeting, "Surely not even you are stupid enough to believe this."
Disputing his claim that the agents will only go after the upper class, Red State deputy manager Brandon Morse wrote, "Yeah, they're just hiring 87,000 IRS agents, most of them tasked with enforcement, to go after the 700 billionaires in this nation."
"Is it professionally embarrassing for you to be shilling for the administration like this?" asked Minnesota House Republicans communications director Andrew Wagner.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., spokesperson Christina Pushaw wrote, "This is a comment from a man who knows he will not be audited by Biden's 87,000 militarized IRS agents."
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NewsBusters executive editor Tim Graham came up with a new title for Kessler, tweeting, "Glenn Kessler is not the ‘Fact Checker.’ It's more like ‘The GOP Debunker.’ The partisanship is apparent."
Twitchy.com editor Greg Pollowitz rebutted Kessler’s claim that there’s practically no chance of an audit, tweeting, "People don’t know that the chance of audits will be low, especially with the growth of the Venmo/cash app/etc. economy."
And conservative radio host Erick Erickson remarked, "’Stated goal’ is the key phrase. The IRS also denied targeting conservative groups until an Inspector General found otherwise."
