House Democrats last week provided top Biden Administration officials with a “hall pass” to obstruct Congress and ignore requests for information about its wide-ranging overreach and harmful policies.
Ways and Means Republicans offered “resolutions of inquiry” (ROI) to force top Administration officials to respond to inquiries with specific factual information – but Democrats voted against them in Committee to prevent them from moving forward.
By rejecting common-sense requests for information that would protect taxpayers, provide transparency, and ensure accountability, Democrats have hamstrung Congress’s ability to perform its vital oversight functions.
Key Takeaways:
- The Biden Administration has failed on its promise to “bring transparency and truth back to the government,” having ignored repeated requests for documents detailing the expected and actual impact of the Biden Administration’s unilateral and harmful policies.
- Ways and Means Republicans offered “resolutions of inquiry” (ROI) to force top Administration officials to respond with specific factual information – but Democrats voted against them in Committee to prevent them from moving forward.
- From massive spending to unprecedented executive overreach, the Biden Administration is using every aspect of government to pursue radical policies that are hurting the American people. President Biden during his first year issued more executive orders and approved more major rules than any recent president. These actions have been costly for the American people:
- Unilateral and unconstitutional rulemaking: An illegal effort to rewrite Obamacare’s eligibility rules
- Allowing foreign countries to grab American tax dollars: A rash proposal to give up Congress’s sovereignty of America’s tax code to foreign countries
- IRS mismanagement: The sudden destruction of 30 million tax returns
- Surrendering innovation to China: The give-away of lifesaving American vaccine patents to China
- Wasteful spending: Sending stimulus checks to felons and the dead
- Unchecked unemployment fraud: The greatest theft of American tax dollars in history
Ways and Means Republicans focused their requests for transparency on the following areas:
- On what grounds does the President claim to be able to change the law of the Affordable Care Act unilaterally?
In direct violation of the clear statutory text and a decade of legal interpretation (including during the Obama Administration), President Biden has unilaterally rewritten the eligibility rules for Obamacare, reframing the intent of the law as a “glitch.” Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health Republican Leader Rep. Vern Buchanan’s (R-FL) resolution seeks to understand whether and how the White House put politics over the law in pressuring agencies to take an unlawful action.
READ: Brady: Biden Health Budget Limits Options, Raises Costs for Americans
- Will Europe and foreign competitors capture American tax dollars as part of President Biden’s international tax negotiations?
The Biden Treasury has so far evaded providing to Congress estimates and analysis of whether proposed international tax rules with the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) would result in the loss of revenue to foreign governments. Rep. Kevin Hern’s (R-OK) resolution seeks this information so Congress can understand where the United States may end up sending its tax revenues and how it could factor into larger geopolitical considerations.
READ: GOP Letter: Biden Administration Has Made Tax Promises to the World Without Congressional Approval
- Finding out why the IRS decided to destroy 30 million paper information returns.
Despite the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) reporting that “the continued inability to process backlogs of paper filed tax returns contributed to management’s decision to destroy an estimated 30 million paper-filed information return documents in March 2021,” the IRS has refused to provide the decision memorandum with a blanket denial preventing Congress from performing its appropriate oversight role. Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee Republican Leader Rep. Tom Rice’s (R-SC) request allows the Committee to understand the agency’s decision-making process around the destruction of tax return information.
READ: New Schumer-Manchin Bill Will Supercharge Long History of IRS Abuses
- How does the Biden Administration’s capitulation to America’s competitors by surrendering the innovative technology behind the COVID-19 vaccines result in improved vaccine access?
The White House unilaterally decided to hand billions of dollars worth of technology to our most disruptive trading partners, and has not ruled out support for an even broader waiver that includes medical diagnostics and therapeutics in addition to vaccines. Ways and Means Subcommittee on Trade Republican Leader Rep. Adrian Smith’s (R-NE) request seeks information on how this decision would improve vaccine access, when it clearly undermines America’s innovators, as well as the workers manufacturing these vaccines, and potentially exposes them to firms in China that have been trying to steal U.S. mRNA research.
READ: A. Smith: American Innovation Must Be Protected as Democrats Endanger New Cures
- How many convicted prisoners, foreign citizens, deceased individuals, and illegal immigrants received taxpayer-funded stimulus checks from Democrats?
The President’s so-called “Rescue Plan” resulted in massive amounts of waste and abuse, including $783.5 million in stimulus checks sent to over 500,000 federal prisoners, including the Boston Marathon Bomber, $1,400 stimulus checks sent to Japanese citizens living in Japan, up to $4.38 billion in stimulus checks sent to illegal immigrants, and $13 million in stimulus checks sent to deceased individuals. Ways and Means Member and Republican Leader of the House Committee on Budget Rep. Jason Smith’s (R-MO)request calls for a full and thorough accounting of where and to whom this money has gone, and what, if any, attempts the Biden White House has made to combat, recoup, or at the very least account for, this waste of taxpayer dollars.
READ: J. Smith: Biden Spending Spree Will Raise Deficits to Highest in History, Worsen Inflation
- How is Biden’s Department of Labor (DOL) working to stop international crime syndicates from profiting from unemployment insurance fraud?
The Biden Administration and congressional Democrats still do not know how many tax dollars have been stolen or improperly paid through unemployment insurance fraud and have failed to take action, despite warnings from federal law enforcement agencies. Worker and Family Support Acting Republican Leader Rep. Brad Wenstrup’s (R-OH) resolution demands communications showing DOL’s knowledge of UI dollars flowing to international crime syndicates.
READ: Republican Leaders Introduce Bill to Recover Unchecked Unemployment Fraud
Original source can be found here.
