But when it comes to the truly sacred chambers of Commerce, well…
Like a wind-up doll. This guy is just gonna give us the same cliches we've been hearing for 40 years. https://t.co/MaWlaaJvVu
— Clean Observer (@Hammbear2024) November 1, 2023
Mike Johnson is sending a clear message with his first proposed legislation, and that message is “our top priority is helping rich tax cheats” https://t.co/17zxt12JU6
— Scott Lemieux (@LemieuxLGM) October 31, 2023
Per the Washington Post:
House Republicans on Monday unveiled a proposal to pay for emergency aid for Israel’s war against Hamas by cutting IRS funds aimed at cracking down on rich tax cheats and improving taxpayer service.
The legislation, released by the House Rules Committee, calls for approving roughly $14 billion primarily in military aid to Israel and cutting about the same amount from the IRS budget. President Biden has proposed giving Israel roughly the same amount in aid but did not call for offsetting cuts to other parts of the budget. The new House speaker, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.), has said the new expenditure must be covered by other spending reductions to avoid adding to the debt. Biden also called for the Israel aid to be packaged with roughly $60 billion for Ukraine, an approach the GOP bill rejected.
The legislation reflects the GOP’s ongoing determination to undo the IRS expansion that Biden secured in 2022 in the Inflation Reduction Act, which boosted the agency’s funding by $80 billion to improve taxpayer services and pay for more enforcement actions against wealthy tax cheats. Biden and House Republicans agreed to repeal roughly $20 billion of that $80 billion as part of a deal in May to suspend the U.S. debt ceiling. Now, Republicans are pushing for more reductions.
The GOP bill would pare back funds for most parts of the IRS expansion, including increased enforcement and a new online portal to allow taxpayers to file their taxes for free directly with the government. The legislation excludes cuts to improved taxpayer services that have helped the IRS reduce wait times for calls.
Using the IRS funding to offset the Israel aid might not actually save money: The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office had estimated in 2022 that the $80 billion IRS expansion would cut the deficit by more than $100 billion by improving collections and enforcement.
“This is the reverse of the right way to think about this,” said Mark Mazur, the Biden administration’s former assistant treasury secretary for tax policy. “This is like if you take a dollar from the IRS and throw a $5 bill out the window.”…
… Where it magically flies into the soft, sweaty hands of someone who can afford to buy legislators, and not just tax accountants.
This adds up to a legislator who is hiding his assets.
That never ends well. https://t.co/PbcVyfIfYA— Mike Galletly ???? (@galletly_mike) November 1, 2023
Mike Johnson doesn't have any retirement savings, own a single stock, or have any assets at all. He has less than $5,000 in his bank account.
He's got a 250-500K mortgage, a home equity loan, and a personal loan.
So what's his retirement plan? To lobby? https://t.co/xPzUPqqc4w
— Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) November 1, 2023
Guess I’m just surprised the Treasury Department will still cut paper payroll checks for MAGA Mike to carry down to the local check-cashing outlet. The Daily Beast:
Newly elected Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) does not have a bank account.
At least, that’s what Johnson reports on years of personal financial disclosures, which date back to 2016 and reveal a financial life that, in the context of his role as a congressman and now speaker, appears extraordinarily precarious.
Over the course of seven years, Johnson has never reported a checking or savings account in his name, nor in the name of his wife or any of his children, disclosures show. In fact, he doesn’t appear to have money stashed in any investments, with his latest filing—covering 2022—showing no assets whatsoever…
House Ethics Committee filing guidelines state that members must disclose bank accounts they have at every financial institution, as long as the account holds at least $1,000 and the combined value of all accounts—including those belonging to their spouse and dependent children—exceeds $5,000…
Brett Kappel, a government ethics expert at Harmon Curran, told The Daily Beast it would be “very unusual for a Member not to have to disclose at least one bank account.”
Jordan Libowitz, communications director for watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, offered a more blunt assessment, saying that if Johnson truly doesn’t have any assets, it “raises questions about his personal financial wellbeing.”
“It’s strange to see Speaker Johnson disclose no assets,” Libowitz told The Daily Beast. “He made over $200,000 last year, and his wife took home salary from two employers as well, so why isn’t there a bank account or any form of savings listed?”…
I don't want members of congress to take 178,000 a year job and turn themselves into millionaires with it, but the idea that this guy has no assets at this point in his life is just straight up bullshit.
— Mike Galletly 🇺🇸 (@galletly_mike) November 1, 2023
He’s got deep-pocket sugar daddies, though…
Speaker Mike Johnson's wealthy Louisiana donors could become key funders for House GOP https://t.co/nUpGfndJtD
— CNBC (@CNBC) October 31, 2023
Per CNBC, “Speaker Mike Johnson’s wealthy Louisiana donors could become key funders for House GOP”:
Newly minted Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has quietly assembled a group of wealthy Louisiana political backers who could become key players in GOP fundraising under Johnson’s speakership…
Johnson’s election last week has reportedly already provided a boost to the National Republican Congressional Committee, the official campaign arm for House Republicans. On Oct. 27, Johnson’s first full day as speaker, the NRCC raised $175,000, according to Politico. It was the group’s best online fundraising day in more than a year and a half…
Wholesale corruption — so much more frugal than the retail version!
I’m pretty sure there are at least a few other generous donors who’ve been too modest to step forward yet, but that’s why oppo research teams exist…
This is a lie. https://t.co/gPFBSsJ6T8
— Clean Observer (@Hammbear2024) November 1, 2023
MAGA Mike’s already looking a lot more petulant than he did last week…
Johnson says House GOP will consider Ukraine funding, border security together https://t.co/QYpuFVMqwZ pic.twitter.com/mUbBgAStGX
— The Hill (@thehill) November 2, 2023
Ken
No banks accounts or assets? I’m sensing another entry for the “cockroaches shouldn’t turn a light on themselves” list.
Yutsano
I mean…the one vote rule is still in effect right?
dmsilev
All of his assets are in some sort of trust or shell corporation? Offshore bank accounts? He always depends on the kindness of strangers? God provides?
karen marie
How has no one asked Johnson about this before now? Like anyone in the payroll office of the House.
Does he take a paper paycheck down to the local check cashing place?
I’m completely gobsmacked.
karen marie
@Ken: His wife has a business. There must be a checking account for that. Presumably she deals with insurance companies. They’re going to want an account to which they deposit funds.
Something super dirty is going on.
dmsilev
Oh God. It’s all in bitcoin and NFTs, isn’t it?
kindness
If they allow Ukraine funding to be split from Israeli funding, Ukraine will end up with nothing.
How many times do they think they can pull this trick?
J. Arthur Crank
Christ, what an asshole!
Like the previous commenters here, I am surprised this wasn’t brought up long before. Maybe the IRS can look into this before their funding gets cut.
Chetan Murthy
@dmsilev: it’s simpler than that, isn’t it? The claim is not that he does not have a bank account; It is that he does not report any bank accounts on his financial disclosure forms that he files. He’s brazening it out: daring the government and all the rest of us to go find those accounts and hold him to account. And so far,Nobody’s bothered to do it.
Mike in NC
USA Today recently ran an opinion piece by somebody named Heather Higgins, CEO of something called “Independent Women’s Voice”, which must be part of the Wingnut Wurlitzer. She gushed about the new MAGA Speaker and his fascist agenda.
Splitting Image
@dmsilev:
I hope so. Especially NFTs.
West of the Rockies
This is a silly thing to gripe about in contrast to the myriad important gripes one could register about Johnson (but I’ll do it anyway)…
Johnson has such a dreary, prim, smug aspect. In appearance he reminds me rather of Peter Baker, another pleased-with-himself, bland bobblehead
And Johnson (not Baker) does have a creepy aspect. Seems like a potentially abusive father. Ugh.
Anne Laurie
I’m personally convinced this is 75% of why the GOP chose him as Speaker — Such a *nice* young fella! Everybody’s just gonna *love* him! The Serious Media will be CHARMED!…
And so, yes, people like Peter Baker find him ‘charming’, because Johnson is JUST LIKE THEM.
Redshift
@Anne Laurie: Shortly after he was elected, some fairly big name journalist (I don’t think it was Baker) tweeted that it might be tough for Dems to make Johnson look bad because of his “persona.”
I tweet-yelled back “no one is going to watch the Speaker on TV and you work in print journalism, how is his ‘persona’ going to get in the way unless you write it that way?”
Grrr…
wjca
If he had the brains that God gives an amoeba he would have noticed that they dug into TIFG’s accounts, once he got prominent enough.** So he’d have stayed as far as possible from the Speaker’s chair. But he didn’t have the brains, so he took the job, and now he’s going under the microscope. Seems likely this doesn’t end well for him.
** Plus he doesn’t have TIFG’s cultists to potentially scare off the Justice Department. Not that it’s worked for TIFG either.
West of the Rockies
@Anne Laurie:
For sure. He’s such a polite sociopath!
Redshift
@Mike in NC: If it has “Independent Women” in the name, you can bet it means “we think all women should be subservient to conservative men, except for us!”
Ruckus
@Anne Laurie:
You know if you put your money where someone can see it, even behind vault doors, they will know how far out you hold your hand for them to put greenbacks in. Here’s a guy who has really nothing to show for his life more than a 16 yr old working at Target after school. Wears somewhat expensive suits, has a home that sounds a bit on the expensive side for Louisiana, makes $223,500/year now after making $174,000 as a representative serving his 4th term.
I wonder how he does it.
Leto
Part of where the non-existent funds come from: Counseling service run by Mike Johnson’s wife compared LGBTQ+ identities to bestiality & incest
As far as no bank accounts: he works for the government, which means he has to have direct deposit. You can’t NOT have it. So where are they depositing his salary checks? I hope they keep digging. Expose it all.
piratedan
isn’t this SOP for the GOP? If this guy was in every dark room helping to plot the overthrow of the US with his calm demeanor as a child of GOD, why not foist him on the nation and introduce the entire nation to him. Then simply lie and brazen it out until someone stops them. These cold smiling fucks are probably planning on assassinating Biden and Harris to install this turd.
and save the histrionics that I’m being alarmist. they’re threatening our allies and putting Taiwan, Ukraine and Isreal out as bargaining chips to take away more rights, defund the government and get their figurehead off the hook. They’re STILL defying court orders on maps from their own state courts and trying to kick everything upstairs to the Faithful Five, who will gladly place their collective thumbs on the scales.
There is no bottom to these fuckers, they’re fascists and everything justifies their means.
cain
@kindness: they only have one play book. It works for their voters.
cain
@Redshift:
No, it includes then .. since they are subservient to their interests. Helping women .. assholes
BeautifulPlumage
I sense this is going to uncover some new christo-nationalist grift that others would prefer to keep on the down low. I hope tearing this little corner back reveals a house of cards that flutters down in ever-expanding waves to expose all of them.
Citizen Alan
@Leto: I am now 100% certain that Johnson’s a pedo. People like him who have deranged views about sexuality attack gays for being pedophiles because they assume gays think the way way they do.
scav
So, this bankless Christ-filled man is the chosen speaker of the party dedicated to running the country like a business, dedicated likewise to law, order and policing and he starts off by cutting off funding for the major engine collecting the funds needed for the nation and enforcing their collection. All businesses, of course, skimp on bill collection — it’s practically their unwritten mission statement. And, did not the baby Jebus say, “Defraud Caesar of what belongs to Caesar while giving your church power over everything and everyone?”
Ms. Deranged in AZ
The IRS desperately needs those funds! I filed my taxes on time this year but was sent a letter saying they weren’t sure if I was me and that I had to contact them and verify myself ( and yes it’s legit, not a scam). So I’ve called them a dozen times and I cannot get a hold of a human being. Every single damn time their system says to call back later and hangs up on me. So here we are 6 months later and the $2,000 plus I owe them is just dangling like Damocles sword over my head. They better not charge me interest because it’s their own fault for never answering the stupid phone. And before anyone asks, no, there is no way to verify my identity online nor any way to resolve the problem online. I’ve been researching it for 6 months with no answer but “call them”, so round and round we go. I wonder what I did to deserve being stuck in this bureaucratic hell.
Yutsano
@Ms. Deranged in AZ: Call 844-545-5640 from 7am to 7pm your time ASAP. Or if you can’t get through just go down there and at least request an appointment be made if they can’t see you. And for the love of Pete I hope you made the payment already! The current interest rate is 8%.
Ms. Deranged in AZ
@Yutsano: I will try to call them yet again tomorrow but no I haven’t paid a penny…they won’t even let me pay them until I am verified and I can’t verify myself without talking to a human and every time I try to talk to a human the system says call back later and hangs up on me (because the form I received requires me to follow certain phone prompts and they always lead to the same end). Besides I don’t have the money anyway. I’ve been out of work since end of June. But I will keep trying I guess. Also, not sure where I would actually go to locally because local IRS folks tell me to call the 800 number that hangs up on me.
RaflW
Under ‘bully pulpit’, it sounds like at least 4 Senate Republicans are publicly fed up with Tuberville now. WaPo:
It’s really time to turn up the heat on other Sen. GOPs, because with the world as unstable as it is now, Tommy Potato is doing active, daily harm to our readiness and ability to act.
Lapassionara
@Ms. Deranged in AZ: who is you Congressional Representative? I would go to that office and ask someone there to help.
Rusty
The no bank account, no retirement account revalation is bizarre if true. He likely is lying, he really has accounts but refuses to tell, he thinks he is above disclosure like Clarence Thomas. Failing to disclose makes it harder for the press to investigate and easier to hide corruption, again like Thomas. The alternative is that he is some kind of gold bug, buying coins or diamonds or something else and burying it all in the back yard. With all those kids and needing to look the successful politician, his salary really isn’t going very far and he could easily be spending it all and more. Like Justice Kavanaugh and his precarious finances that somehow got fixed when someone mysteriously paid back several hundred thousand dollars for baseball tickets. It all has a whiff of sovereign citizen weirdness. Short of having legal investigation powers it will be hard to root out if he brazenly defies disclosure, which I am guessing he will. Are any of them not corrupt?
Basilisc
Yes, his plan is to lobby. Or become “director” of a 501(c)3 “institute” funded by a billionaire or two (same thing). He has his wife’s income (and his tiny-for-the-1-percent congressional income, and probably some ‘gifts” from his wealthy Louisiana friends) for any expenses in the meantime.
Don’t worry about our friend Mike – he’ll do fine.
Nukular Biskits
@J. Arthur Crank:
Apparently, that’s one of the reasons the House GOP wants to cut funding.
zhena gogolia
@West of the Rockies: Bingo! He looks like Peter Baker!
Gvg
@Ms. Deranged in AZ: Can you go in person to an IRS office? with ID in hand? It might be nit conveniently close, somewhere an hours drive away if you aren’t in a big city, but after 6 months of phone hell, a trip might be worth the trouble.
Verifying ID often favors in person face to face anyway. Take everykind of document you can think of in a box in your trunk, so you don’t hopefully have to do it twice. Utility bills, birth certificates, everything.
Jackie
@zhena gogolia: He reminds me of Stephen Colbert – when he portrayed the quintessential republican on The Colbert Report.
All Johnson is missing is the huge American flag waving behind him and the bald eagle screeching while he’s talking.
gene108
@Rusty:
Kavanough’s dad was a CEO of decent sized company for years. Dad’s a multi-multi-millionaire and supports his sons lifestyle of doing what he loves over getting a good paying job as a business executive or partner in a large law firm.
Chris Johnson
@Ken: I’m wondering how much of this reporting is outright, breathtakingly dry sarcasm. If so, it’s chefs-kiss perfect.
Gee, being a government worker with hundreds and thousands of dollars of debt that mysteriously gets paid down to the next reporting bracket and no visible means of financial security seems like it might border on being irresponsible. The poor man should get paid more because it seems like there is no way he can survive this way, that we know about.
le epic burn. You love to see it.
Chris Johnson
@dmsilev: Rubles?
Marmot
@West of the Rockies:
Prim! Yes, that’s the word. I was marveling at how all male evangelicals have the same haircut. Parted on the far end of one side, then kind of back a bit, but at the front, always wrapping around the forehead clear to the other side.
It’s like only the devil will show the hair ends. I feel a Beck song coming on.
Betty
Is anyone else bothered by the line in the Post article that the cut to the IRS funding ” might not actually save money”? I think the CBO would be pretty reliable on that point, but this makes it sound debatable.
Another Scott
Morning all.
Circling back to Johnson’s “only in Washington does cutting spending increase the deficit” comment.
It’s peak truthiness, and lazy at the same time. He wants people to believe that money taken in by the federal government is simply set on fire. Zero sum. It’s “obvious”, because the government doesn’t do anything useful.
It’s so stupid and wrong, but it puts his people in the right frame of mind where they don’t have to think or question.
The press and others have been good at pushing back on the facts, but they need to push back on the memes, too.
Something like, “Johnson wants us to believe that rich tax cheats will be caught if there’s nobody to check their tax returns. How is that fair to the rest of us who correctly pay our taxes? When the cheats pay less, the rest of us pay more…”
Gotta fight the memes too.
Grr…,
Scott.
Another Scott
@Ms. Deranged in AZ: Call your congressman. They can help in situations like this. They really can.
Threaten the IRS that you will go to the local TV news if they don’t help you get this straightened out.
Sometimes you have to go outside the system to fix the system.
Good luck!!
Cheers,
Scott.
Ohio Mom
@Jackie: I thought the same thing, and Colbert did too. He made a joke in his monologue about how much they look alike.
Chief Oshkosh
@Leto: He may have an account for depositing the gov’t check. That account is set up to send funds to other accounts at intervals such that at the time(s) that any of these accounts would be subject to reporting, none of them has more than a $5,000 balance.
Ohio Mom
It only took the NYT how many years to report Trump’s taxes in detail — it was well into his presidency.
Here is a scoop just sitting there, someone has taken the first step, else we wouldn’t know Johnson doesn’t appear to have a checking or other bank account in his name. Are any editors or reporters going to keep digging?
evodevo
@Lapassionara:
Yes, this…if your Rep is good at constituent service, it will get your problem looked at tout suite…I’ve tried it and it works, even if you are a Dem (just don’t say so) and the rep is a GOPer…
JaneE
Where do they send his salary? It could be a credit union account, but I think that would qualify as a bank account for purposes of financial disclosure.
There needed to be an ethics investigation years ago.
wjca
Absolutely this. Nobody in the Federal government hangs up when a Congressman’s office calls. And they get the problem addressed damn quick, too.