Florida Rep. Byron Donalds recently got into a tense debate with NBC’s Chuck Todd during a “Meet the Press” interview. The two clashed over topics such as the ongoing debt ceiling negotiations and the expansion of the IRS to include new agents.
The conversation initiated with Todd asking Donalds about former president Donald Trump’s comments in 2019 when negotiating the debt ceiling with Nancy Pelosi. Donalds argued at that point in time, “our economy was thriving” and “our debt levels were not where they are now.”
Donalds said, “Now you have $32 trillion on the credit card and all House Republicans are saying is let’s go back to pre-pandemic spending, that’s commonsense stuff.” Todd said, “They want fewer IRS agents and fewer attempts to properly get tax receipts into the federal government’s coffers. I have never understood the resistance of extra IRS agents unless you knowingly cheat on your taxes.” Donalds hit back at Todd, “That’s salacious, and you know that.”
“Most Americans by far pay their taxes and do it honorably, what House Republicans, frankly the Republican Party, is concerned about is having IRS agents go after middle-class families and small business owners. When you have that many more agents, it’s not to go after the rich. It’s to go after middle class. That’s what it’s for,” Donalds continued. Todd doubled down stating, “If you are paying what you are supposed pay then you should have nothing to fear.”
“You would make the assumption that IRS audits are up, that they’re putting more liens on the American people. That’s not true. That data is not there. All Joe Biden is trying to find out of every possible nickel out of every couch of every American to pay for his spending,” Donalds added.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy also slammed Biden regarding the debt ceiling negotiations. “Now, the president, even though he was overseas, thought to change places… I don’t understand that. For 97 days he ignored me. We were in a good place. He goes overseas, and now he wants to change the debate,” McCarthy said. “That’s not healthy. We still have to pass a bill before the House and the Senate, and we only have 11 days to go.”
McCarthy continued, “The president has really shifted right after the more progressive socialist wing of the party stood up and says they want to spend more money. He’s now bringing something to the table that everyone said was off the table. It seems as though he wants default more than he wants a deal. That’s not where I’m at, and the one thing you know… about me, Maria, I will never give up.”
Bided recently blamed Republicans for derailing debt negotiations while at a press conference in Hiroshima. He said, “On the merits, based on what I’ve offered, I would be blameless. On the politics of it, no one would be blameless. And by the way, that’s one of the, one of the things some [people] are contemplating. Well, I gotta be careful here. I think there are some MAGA Republicans in the House who know the damage that it would do to the economy and because I am president, and presidents are responsible for everything, Biden would take the blame. And that’s the one way to make sure Biden’s not re-elected.”
Featured Image: Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
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