WASHINGTON – Last week, a House committee released testimony from an IRS whistleblower accusing the Justice Department of interfering with the federal tax collection unit’s investigation into President Joe Biden’s son , Hunter, whom Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis believes received a “treat love.”
However, this week, DeSantis said he would abolish the agency that undertook the Hunter Biden investigation if he wins the presidency.
DeSantis, second in national polls for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, also said he would eliminate the Energy and Education departments, which date to the Jimmy Carter administration, and the Commerce Department, which dates to Teddy Roosevelt .
“We’d do Education, we’d do Commerce, we’d do Energy, and we’d do IRS,” DeSantis told Fox News anchor Martha McCallum. In the next breath, he acknowledged the most glaring obstacle to fulfilling those promises: He would need Congress to follow through.
DeSantis did not elaborate on his plans, and a campaign spokesman did not respond to a request for comment on whether, as president, DeSantis would seek to move programs to other departments or ax the agency at the center of investigating Hunter Biden’s finances could encourage the powerful to evade taxes.
“The timing is strange,” said one Republican strategist who is not aligned with either presidential campaign, noting that IRS whistleblowers will be in the spotlight in the coming weeks.
“As House Republicans continue to work with whistleblowers, the IRS has already secured a plea deal from Hunter Biden, and the idea that we should let the political elite off the hook for crimes is not something that will well with the Republican. base,” the strategist said.
DeSantis may have left himself open to criticism for not fleshing out his proposal at a time when he’s just beginning to roll out his policies on the campaign trail.
“DeSantis doesn’t really have a detailed plan,” said Steven Cheung, a spokesman for former President Donald Trump, who has a large lead in national polls for the GOP nomination.
“Everything that comes out of his mouth is just an incomprehensible word salad with no real details,” Cheung said. “On the other hand, President Trump has released the boldest, most detailed and most transparent policy plan — Agenda 47 — that lays out exactly what a second Trump term will look like.”
The battle highlights a point of tension as DeSantis tries to maneuver to Trump’s political right on a range of issues. What’s popular with conservative primary voters isn’t always helpful for the party’s candidate in the general election.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Trump ally who sought to eliminate all three departments in 1995, declined to comment on the specifics of DeSantis’ proposal. But he called for a “de-bureaucratization” of the federal government.
“I think it’s inevitable that we’re going to have a very deep and dramatic reform of the system,” Gingrich said in a brief phone interview with NBC News. He pointed to the example of Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds of Iowa, who signed a law that reduced the number of cabinet-level state agencies from 37 to 16, as a model to follow at the federal level.
“She can be the case study,” Gingrich said.
But massive government reorganization has proven much easier at the state level than at the federal level. There are advocates for the work of entire departments, from lawmakers to agency officials, and from interest groups to individual citizens.
“How realistic is it for a presidential candidate to say he’s going to abolish an agency? It’s realistic to say it, but not do it,” said Brian W. Smith, a political science professor at the University of St. Edwards of Texas. “Talk is cheap, but killing an agency is not.”
Smith said it’s not just about the presence of an agency in Washington, which is generally the focus of much of the political rhetoric focused on abolishing departments, but the impact that abolishing any agency nationwide.
“Abolishing agencies is a dirty and nasty process with clear losers – people and communities depend on these agencies for their livelihoods,” he said. “There’s an IRS facility down the street from my college. What about the people who work there?”
Raymond Orbach, who was sworn in as the Energy Department’s first assistant secretary for science in June 2006, said the agency’s functions are vital to national security and scientific progress.
“What people don’t understand is that it’s not just a federal agency, it’s a federal agency that runs 17 national laboratories. It’s the biggest supporter of medical science, bigger,” he said, than the National Science Foundation, “and it has just an extraordinary and significant reach across the country.”
In addition, it is home to the National Nuclear Security Administration, which maintains the country’s stockpile of nuclear weapons and works on global security and nonproliferation efforts.
“The relationship with NNSA with the rest of the department and basic science is crucial,” Orbach said. “It’s a complex relationship that has been building over time.”
Even so, DeSantis is the latest in a long line of Republicans to propose cutting Energy and other departments.
Ronald Reagan criticized the creation of the Department of Education when he ran against Carter in 1980, but it remained intact during his two terms. Fifteen years later, Gingrich finally compromised with the GOP-controlled Senate to preserve the Energy, Education and Commerce departments in congressional budget that year.
In 2012, then-Texas Governor Rick Perry memorably forgot the name of the Department of Energy, which would later run for Trump, during a televised primary debate.
Rep. Darren Soto, a Florida Democrat who serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said DeSantis’ proposal would “threaten national security and public safety, drive us into a recession, and allow discrimination be rampant” if enacted.
“Trade is our primary employment agency, driving our current manufacturing boom and overseeing parts of our ambitious infrastructure plan,” Soto said. “Education protects students with disabilities and English language learners. And the IRS collects the funds to run our U.S. military and other key federal programs.”
Abolishing the IRS has become a popular call to action among conservatives in recent years. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, campaigned on the idea when he ran for president in 2016, and some of his campaign aides are now working to elect DeSantis.
Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., introduced legislation this year that would end the IRS as part of a broader plan to replace income, gift, payroll and estate taxes with a uniform national sales tax that would start at 23% in 2025.
Democrats believe the flat tax plan, which Speaker Kevin McCarthy agreed to introduce to the House as part of a deal to secure votes for his presidency, it will backfire on Republicans politically
“They want to raise taxes on the middle class by taxing thousands of everyday items on groceries, gas, clothing and cutting taxes on the wealthiest,” Biden. he said in January. “They want working-class people to pay another 10, 20 percent of their taxes, depending on where they live and how they spend their money. And they’re going to cut taxes on the super-rich.”
Trump proposed sweeping cuts to Department of Education and Commerce programs during his tenure. But he didn’t try to eliminate any cabinet departments or the IRS.
One measure of the potential political backlash to the idea of the flat tax — which Republicans call the “fair tax” — is how allies of the leading candidates for the Republican nomination have reacted. each candidate booted on top of
Trump’s super PAC MAGA Inc. released an ad in May accusing DeSantis of wanting to raise taxes based on his co-sponsorship of an earlier version of Carter’s bill when he was a member of the House. Never Back Down, the superPAC that supports DeSantis, responded by pulling together past clips of Trump touting “flat” and “fair” taxes to make the case for the US simplifying its tax system.
The broad concept of getting rid of the IRS is popular among Republican primary voters, according to strategists and polls.
“As a Republican, any time you talk about eliminating the IRS, you get praise,” said David Urban, a former Trump campaign adviser who is race-neutral. He noted that Biden’s push to strengthen IRS enforcement has made the issue a particularly hot button for Republicans.
That may overshadow the timing of DeSantis’ pledge, made as House Republicans seek testimony from senior Justice Department and IRS officials after whistleblower allegations that political considerations impeded the agency’s investigation .
What remains unclear is how DeSantis plans to raise revenue if he abolishes the IRS but does not move to a national sales tax.
Cheung said Trump’s policy specificity is a key contrast to DeSantis.
“That’s why he’s dominating in poll after poll, both nationally and statewide, and he’s the only candidate who can beat Joe Biden,” Cheung said of Trump.
