Why I Voted “Heck No” On The Inflation Expansion Act [Op-ed by Congresswoman Diana Harshbarger]

Image Credit: Rep. Diana Harshbarger / YouTube

By Congresswoman Diana Harsbarger (R-TN) –

Earlier this month, Washington Democrats rushed H.R. 5376 for a vote, a socialist scheme chock full of economy-crushing measures. They even used YOUR federal taxes as payment for all the airfare and travel costs necessary to reconvene Congress for a single vote in a mad dash to advance it before Americans could fully realize what was in it.

In advance of the looming vote, I demanded answers. I also shared my detailed opposition and sincerely appreciate that over 1,600 Tennesseans took the took the time to listen and share their feedback on my service. In the hours leading up to the vote, I continued to use my voice by addressing the House on the floor as featured on C-SPAN.  

As if the constant spending packages being proposed by the Democrat Congressional Majority weren’t hurting American wallets enough, this bill will severely tax the energy sector and make gas at the pump and utilities such as heating your home this winter even more expensive. These harmful energy taxes alone violate Biden’s pledge not to raise taxes on households making less than $400,000 per year!

H.R. 5376 also continues wasteful Obamacare expanded taxpayer subsidies for wealthy households. Rather than making health insurance more affordable, this bill redistributes inflated costs to taxpayers and lines the coffers of insurance companies to the tune of $64 billion! It also puts in place big government socialist price controls on prescription drugs, which will knee-cap healthcare treatment innovations and patient choice by resulting in fewer life-saving drugs developed over the coming years.

But it does not stop there! This inflation expansion bill that Biden signed into law also includes $80 BILLION in new funds for the Internal Revenue Services (IRS) to hire 87,000 new agents to conduct audits. This supersizing of the IRS to literally double its employees is absurd. Only 4% of the funding is reserved to improve customer service and there are 9.3 MILLION Americans still waiting for their 2021 returns to be processed! The bulk of this $80 billion would go toward beefing-up harassing audits for hard-working Americans making less than $100,000 per year!

Afterwards, liberal CNN anchor Jake Tapper attacked Republicans for highlighting services, assistance, or information available to Americans from legislation where that Member of Congress may not have supported final passage. Attention CNN: Maybe you should take Civics 101 again, because it’s entirely appropriate in our Constitutional system to advocate for certain things for constituents — even though regrettably they wind-up being included in a purely partisan, big government, far-Left socialist wish-list bill, where the bad far outweighs the good. I will not be silenced by your tactics!

Earlier this year, I hired Terry Harris as part of my district office staff, who has experience navigating federal agency backlogs to specifically provide IRS casework assistance to our constituents. Please contact my office and let us know how we can do our best to try to help you.