House Majority Leader Steve Scalise defended his party's bill that would offset United States aid to Israel with cuts to the Internal Revenue Service.
The House of Representatives voted last week in favor of a $14.3 billion aid package to Israel, but the offsetting cuts to the IRS prompted Democratic opposition and criticism. Only 12 House Democrats voted in favor of it, while two Republicans voted against it, and the Democratically-controlled Senate has indicated the bill is dead on arrival.
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"We passed a bill that addressed two problems that our Defense Department talks about: One, we need to get aid to Israel, and we do; but when our generals come and testify before committees like armed services, they say our debt is our biggest national threat. Not other countries like China, Russia — they say it's our debt. We addressed both in this bill in a bipartisan vote," Scalise said on ABC's This Week.
Despite Scalise's claim, estimates show the cut to the IRS wouldn't pay for the bill and would actually increase the nation’s debt over the course of a decade, according to a report from the Congressional Budget Office released earlier this week. The CBO said that the bill would decrease revenue by $26.7 billion and add $12.5 billion to the deficit over the next decade.
President Joe Biden sent a supplemental funding request totaling more than $100 billion last month, and the White House has said he would veto the bill the House passed last week if it came to his desk.
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"The bill that they're currently putting forward inserts partisanship into support for Israel and makes a key ally a pawn of politics," deputy press secretary Emilie Simons told reporters last week. "It also denies humanitarian assistance to vulnerable people, including Palestinian civilians, and it would set a dangerous new precedent by including offsets that we've heard today from CBO would actually increase the deficit by $26 billion."
New House Speaker Mike Johnson pursued the individualized aid package to Israel following weeks of instability in the House due to the Republican Party's inability to elect a speaker.