May 27, 2023

This political animal is Dusty Jackson, congressman from the barely-populated state of South Dakota. And because he's from the West and doesn't personally know that many people, but by God he knows all the right wing buzzwords and ideas that good Westerners know, and that's why he knows that Joe Biden is spending too much of the people's money!

Watch Katy Tur take him down with a smile.

"Let me ask you about IRS funding. Are you sure cutting that funding is a good idea? Revenue offsets the deficit and this is money intended to make sure that very high earners are actually paying what they are supposed to pay," she said.

"If the administration had brought forth some sort of proposal to invest in customer service folks at the IRS, to invest in technologies that would catch tax cheats, really a plan -- of," good old Dusty said.

"It is for auditors," Tur reminded him.

"Yes, although I would tell you that there has not been a clear administration plan on how those dollars would be used in a way that would catch the tax cheats rather than just harass middle America," he said, repeating right wing media talking points.

"Who is saying it will harass middle America? The White House says it is auditors for high earners who are able to exploit a ton of loopholes that they shouldn't exploit, they can hire people do their tax documents. They have said specifically this is not for the middle class, it is for high earners," Tur said.

Uh oh. Dusty smells political danger, and his lizard brain kicks in. So he changes the subject.

"I don't have any problem catching tax cheats. Let's make that clear," he said.

"I would say that this is the problem with spending. Like, I raise questions about $80 billion in spending and you say, well, Congressman, what's your proof?

"With all due respect, I think the burden of proof is dropped at the feet of those people who want to add 87,000 more federal government auditors. I think that they have a big piece of evidence they've gotta prove before we do that."

Can you help us out?

For nearly 20 years we have been exposing Washington lies and untangling media deceit, but now Facebook is drowning us in an ocean of right wing lies. Please give a one-time or recurring donation, or buy a year's subscription for an ad-free experience. Thank you.

Discussion

We welcome relevant, respectful comments. Any comments that are sexist or in any other way deemed hateful by our staff will be deleted and constitute grounds for a ban from posting on the site. Please refer to our Terms of Service for information on our posting policy.
Mastodon