How the Hell Did Democrats Leave the IRS $20 Billion in the Red?

Democrats forgot to read the fine print on a bill and spoon-fed a huge victory to Republicans who want to kill the IRS.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the IRS’s tax enforcement fund, which allowed the IRS to better audit corporations and the wealthiest households, is now $20 billion in the red—leaving the fund’s future up in the air.

In 2022, when Democrats had a trifecta hold over the government, they put $80 billion toward the IRS, which was supposed to help the agency hire, modernize, and enforce through the next decade. When Republicans took the House back in 2023, they started making cuts to that fund to protect their rich friends and corporate interests, placing a $1.4 billion cut and then another $20 billion cut into deals they made with Biden last year.

This year’s stopgap funding bill—meant to keep the government open through December 20—kept the same $20 billion cut in the text. Congressional Republicans noticed that the Democrats didn’t notice its inclusion and watched silently with glee as yet another massive slash was made to one of the most important agencies we have.

“Our concern right now is that because of this risk to the IRS and the uncertainty of it, the IRS is going to potentially have to make dramatic decisions about stopping hiring,” Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo told the Journal. “They are running low on enforcement dollars today.”

Adeyemo also noted that the cuts will force the IRS to do 2,000 fewer large corporate audits over the next five years and 6,000 fewer audits of wealthy individuals.

Donald Trump’s pick for the secretary of the Navy isn’t sitting well even with some MAGA faithful.

Trump announced Tuesday evening that he had selected John Phelan, founder and chairman of the private investment firm Rugger Management, to head the Navy. “A true Champion of American Enterprise and Ingenuity!” Trump wrote in a statement. “John’s intelligence and leadership are unmatched. John holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School, and is a truly brilliant guy! His incredible knowledge and experience will elevate the lives of the brave Americans who serve our Nation.”

Phelan is a somewhat curious choice, considering he has no military experience. Military Times reports that, if confirmed by the Senate, he “would be the first permanent Navy secretary without military experience since 2009, when Donald Winter finished up his three-year term in the role. Unlike Winter, who previously had worked within the Pentagon and on Navy contracts at major defense firms, Phelan has little public connection to the sea service.” Phelan is, however, on the board of a nonprofit “dedicated to supporting troops and diplomats worldwide.”

A detail that perhaps clarifies Trump’s decision: Along with his record as a businessman, Phelan was a Trump campaign megadonor. He reportedly donated more than $800,000 to Trump’s joint fundraising committee in April. This summer, he and his wife hosted a Trump campaign fundraising dinner at their $38 million home, “where attendees were required to donate anywhere from $25,000 to $500,000 a couple,” per The Guardian.

Online, even some of Trump’s supporters are questioning the pick and interpreting it as a display of cronyism.

One X user who sports “#MAGA” in her bio wrote: “This makes ZERO sense. NONE. How is Trump naming a hedge fund guy as Secretary of the Navy??? WTH??? I’m a huge Trump supporter, but we need MILITARY COMMANDERS running military branches.”

“Questioning the John Phelan pick,” posted another “Pro-Trump” user. “Feels like rewarding a cronie as he has no military experience. But, if his focus is going to be on making sure that the supply chain is up to stuff so that the Navy can build the ships it needs, it may be okay.”

Other conservative X users asked, “Ummm, why? He has never served in the Navy,” observed the appointment “seems like a gift,” and deemed it a “weird choice to nominate a person with no military experience to lead a branch of the military.”

“The Secretary of the Navy should be someone who served in the Navy,” posted user “Ms. Deplorable.”

Similar sentiments can be found in responses to the announcement on Trump’s Truth Social platform. One user wrote, “As a Veteran of the U.S. Navy, I want a Sailor in charge!! Not some walstreet billionaire with ZERO Military experience!! You got this wrong DJT!!!”

Another said the choice “feels like you’re rewarding a friend/donor.”

Recently released, beautifully drawn courtroom sketches are giving us a vivid depiction of just how out of control Rudy Giuliani is right now.

Artist Jane Rosenberg, who has sketched the likes of Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein, and Jeffrey Epstein while they were on trial, appeared on CNN Tuesday to discuss her experience sketching Donald Trump’s embattled crony.

“His decorum has certainly changed from when I sketched him 44 years ago as a prosecutor,” Rosenberg said. “He’s losing it. He was wild. I feel bad for anyone who represents him. He blurts out orders at his lawyers who are at the podium, and he’s interrupting all the time.”

Rosenberg’s sketches show Giuliani looking absolutely incensed—brow furrowed and arms crossed in one; finger pointing sharply at someone in another.

Rosenberg’s sketch captures Giuliani’s  outburst about how broke he is right now. The former New York City mayor was ordered to pay $148 million to Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, two Georgia election workers he defamed after Donald Trump lost the state  in 2020. He’s already handed over his luxury watches, a diamond ring, and a 1980 Mercedes-Benz, and claims he has no cash left to fulfill the judgment.

Donald Trump’s pick to lead the National Institutes of Health has a long history of criticism of the agency.

The Washington Post reports that Jay Bhattacharya, a physician and economist at Stanford University, was described as “fringe” by the head of the NIH in October 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic for being one of the authors of the “Great Barrington Declaration,” which stated that it was time for coronavirus lockdowns to end.

Trump announced Bhattacharya as his choice to lead the agency Tuesday night, drawing on the suggestion from his adviser and pick to run the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy. The department oversees the NIH.

Bhattacharya is a favorite of many Covid-skeptical Republicans, with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis taking his advice during the pandemic. The Stanford academic also has the support of powerful figures among Trump supporters, including Silicon Valley billionaire and conservative megadonor Peter Thiel; Elon Musk, who claims Twitter suppressed Bhattacharya’s views before the tech CEO bought the platform; and podcaster Joe Rogan.

Bhattacharya claims that the NIH is shutting down alternative perspectives, saying figures in the agency such as Dr. Anthony Fauci, who led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for 38 years, were too powerful.

“I would restructure the NIH to allow there to be many more centers of power, so that you couldn’t have a small number of scientific bureaucrats, dominating a field for a very long time,” Bhattacharya said in a January interview.

Trump’s choice of Bhattacharya seems to be a nod not only toward Covid and lockdown skeptics but also to those who might place economic concerns over public health. This, coupled with the appointments of people like Kennedy, suggests that if a second pandemic breaks out (which is increasingly likely), the Trump administration may handle it even worse than last time.

Donald Trump is shirking decades-old norms intended to make the transfer of power smoother, according to The New York Times.

After weeks of delays, the president-elect’s team has finally signed a standard transition agreement with the White House to start briefing staff members. But they are still refusing to sign two other key documents. One is a Justice Department agreement to let the FBI perform security clearances for transition team members. This means that the Biden administration still isn’t able to share classified information with anyone from Trump’s transition team. The Trump team also won’t sign the General Services Administration agreement, which provides secure office space and government email accounts.

Top Trump aide Susan Wiles explained the reasoning behind this refusal, stating that Trump wants his team to “operate as a self-sufficient organization. This organizational autonomy means a streamlined process that guarantees the Trump Administration is ready on Day 1.

“The transition already has existing security and information protections built in, which means we will not require additional government and bureaucratic oversight,” Wiles continued.

But Biden officials say this refusal will just make information sharing harder, as they will have to find other ways to share important, unclassified information with the incoming administration—meaning in-person-only briefings and more restrictions on how said information will be shared. The Trump team has not commented on whether it does intend to sign the agreement sometime in the near future.