Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he would “welcome” a measure by Congress to defund the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) if he is elected president next year.
The comments from DeSantis, who officially announced this week that he would seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, came during a conversation with radio host and Second Amendment advocate Dana Loesch on The Dana Show.
During the interview, DeSantis was asked if he would sign a congressional measure to abolish the IRS through funding means, as well as what he would replace the system with.
“Are you in favor of a fair tax, a flat tax, where do you stand on that?” Loesch asked DeSantis.
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“So the answer is yes. I believe the IRS is a corrupt organization and I believe it is not a friend to the average citizen or taxpayer,” DeSantis responded. “We need something totally different.”
“I’ve supported all the single rate proposals, I think it would be a huge improvement on the current system and I’d welcome taking that tax system, throwing it out the window and doing something that’s more favorable to the average person . . .
DeSantis, who has repeatedly targeted the IRS for its unfair practices and crackdown on the middle class, said last August that an effort by the Biden administration to expand the IRS with 87,000 new agents was a sign of disrespect.
“Of all the things that have come out of Washington that have been outrageous, this has got to be pretty near the top,” DeSantis said at the time. “I think it was basically just the middle finger to the American public, that this is what they think of you.”
DeSantis, emphasizing the idea that Washington is “coming after you,” also suggested at the time that the new agents would be more geared toward those with small businesses or those working to make ends meet at regular, day-to-day jobs. .
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis during a press conference at Christopher Columbus High School on March 27, 2023 in Miami. (Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
“They’re going to go after independent contractors, they’re going to go after small business owners, they’re going to go after someone who can drive an Uber or a handyman or all of those things,” DeSantis added at the time. “Why would they do that? Because you won’t be able to fight the audit, so they’re going to crush a lot of people doing that.”
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Speaking on the same topic that month, DeSantis, who at the time was commenting on the FBI raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, wrote in a tweet: “The MAL attack is another escalation in the ‘weaponizing federal agencies against the regime. political opponents, while people like Hunter Biden are treated with kid gloves. Now the Regime is making another 87,000 IRS agents wield them against their adversaries? Banana Republic.’
During a 2013 appearance on Fox News, DeSantis said from a “political perspective” that he believes the IRS is “really past its point of usefulness.”
“I think we need to move to a fair or flat tax and give less power to the government,” DeSantis, a member of the House Judiciary and Oversight Committee, said at the time.
Before DeSantis’ announcement that he would seek the White House, several of his detractors, including a super PAC backing former President Donald Trump’s 2024 efforts, targeted the governor for his support of a national sales tax during his time representing the Sunshine State. 6th Congressional District in the House from 2013 to 2018.
“In Congress, Ron DeSantis supported a national sales tax, a 23 percent tax hike on almost everything you buy…from the gas station to the grocery store,” stated a MAGA Inc announcement ., the leading super PAC aligned with Trump’s candidacy in the 2024 race for the White House.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced this week that he would seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 (AP/Maya Alleruzzo)
While it’s true that DeSantis supported a bill that proposed a 23 percent federal sales tax, key details were omitted from the announcement. Under the bill’s proposed federal sales tax, all other federal taxes, including income tax, would have been eliminated if the bill had passed.
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Known as the Fair Tax Act, or HR25, a version of the bill has been introduced in Congress several times since 1999. DeSantis co-sponsored the bill in 2013, 2015 and 2017.
“In Congress, the governor supported the concept of a fair tax, a plan to reduce an individual’s overall tax burden by replacing all federal taxes, including income tax, with a lower tax,” Bryan Griffin, press secretary for DeSantis’ political team. , he said in a statement shared with Fox News Digital last week. “The plan also sought to end the IRS, which, at the time, was being weaponized by the Obama administration.”
