Democrat congressman defends hiring 87,000 new IRS agents: 'It's important we have the revenue streams'

A Democrat running for re-election in one of the most heavily favored seats for Republicans to flip in this year's midterm elections told a reporter earlier this week that he was in favor of hiring 87,000 new Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents as part of his party's massive social spending and taxation legislation, known as the Inflation Reduction Act. 

The bill, which was signed into law by President Biden earlier this month, will grant an $80 billion boost to the IRS over a 10-year period, with more than half of the funds intended to help the agency crack down on tax evasion by hiring the massive amount of agents that would more than double the agency's current size.

In a Tuesday interview with InMaricopa, Rep. Tom O'Halleran, D-Ariz., claimed the cost of hiring thousands of new agents would be offset by the tax income that the move would allegedly bring in through its increased auditing of Americans, and that it would also help reduce the budget deficit.