The Biden Administration seemed to cave, somewhat, today on the IRS snooping provision they have been pushing — getting reports on accounts that had inflow/outflow of $600 or more, a provision which would basically then give them the ability to look at everyone’s account.

Now, they’re claiming that they will scale it back to $10,000. But it’s $10,000 over the course of a year that they’re proposing now.

From Fox Business:

“Today’s new proposal reflects the administration’s strong belief that we should zero in on those at the top of the income scale who don’t pay the taxes they owe, while protecting American workers by setting the bank account threshold at $10,000 and providing an exemption for wage earners like teachers and firefighters,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement.

Bu this is actually pretty deceptive. Because while it might not pick up a salary coming in, according to the Republicans, the provision will pick up the money going out, which again most Americans will spend more than $10,000 in a year if they are working adults. It’s also going to pick up people who are paid but don’t get a W2 or regular salary with the money coming in.

So this is basically a distinction without a difference as the outflow would pick up basically everyone anyway according to Republicans. Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA), and Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID) blasted the effort today.

Democrats upped their proposed threshold from $600 to $10,000 today. Would exempt wage income. But Toomey says it will still capture “almost every single American.”
“If they raise it to 10,000 it will still capture everybody, and every small business,” Toomey says.

— Tyler Olson (@TylerOlson1791) October 19, 2021

GOP Sen. Kennedy: “Whether it’s $600 or $10,000 under this proposal the intimate financial details” of Americans will be given to IRS. “What possibly could go wrong… President Xi would be proud.” pic.twitter.com/oL6oEfdWMO

— Tyler Olson (@TylerOlson1791) October 19, 2021

Crapo says Yellen comment about exempting wage earners in proposal would still would cause most Americans to have their bank cash flow reported to the IRS “unless they don’t spend their income.”

— Tyler Olson (@TylerOlson1791) October 19, 2021

But listen as White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki gets grilled by Fox’s Peter Doocy and is completely deceptive about it. She doesn’t explain the above points. She tries to claim it’s all about the high-wage earners.

DOOCY: "Is the plan to catch billionaire tax-cheats by snooping on accounts that just have $10,000 in them?"

PSAKI: "That's not exactly an accurate description, so let me help you with an accurate description of what is actually happening here." pic.twitter.com/Xmfb1P3tup

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) October 19, 2021

So as a regular wage earner you would think, listening to her, that it doesn’t apply to you, and yet it would if you spent more than $10,000 in a year, as you might on unimportant little things like rent, food and clothing.

Again if it were true they were only interested in billionaires, they wouldn’t have to go down to $10,000 in a whole year — that’s, again, basically anyone.

As Kennedy notes, it isn’t even about the amount per se, it’s about the principle that they don’t have any right to be snooping into your accounts without probable cause, to begin with. If you were talking about an audit or a criminal action that would be another question. But this is a giant fishing expedition, buttressed with the 87,000 new IRS agents that they want to go after everyone. Because you know that all those people aren’t being hired to just go after the “billionaires.” There aren’t that many billionaires. That’s an effort to go after a lot of Americans in general.