Van Hollen Gloats About Inflation Reduction Act Passage — ‘Empowered the IRS to Go After Wealthy Tax Cheats’

Monday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) sounded off about the Senate’s passage of the $700 billion so-called “Inflation Reduction Act.”

Van Hollen hailed the provision in the legislation that would add 87,000 Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents. He noted the provision “empowered the IRS to go after wealthy tax cheats.”

“The bottom line is we got this done,” Van Hollen emphasized. “Would I have liked to have closed those tax loopholes as well? You bet I would have. But the big picture is we got it done. It will reduce the deficit. We came up with alternative … tax measures, and we are closing a lot of tax breaks for very wealthy corporations and others, including that 15% minimum tax on corporations, some of whom were paying zero income taxes in the United States, so this is an important bill.”

He continued, “We also empowered the IRS to go after wealthy tax cheats so that we collect taxes that are already due and owing from very wealthy people who try to hide their income and not contribute to the country. So, yeah, a big day on the climate front, on the health care front and on the tax reform front.”

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