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Former Obama administration official Brandon Friedman claimed opposition to the IRS is racist following renewed attacks against the agency on Sunday.

On Twitter, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, tweeted out, "Happy Sunday. Abolish the IRS," as a joke to his followers. Friedman fired back that this anger against the IRS is not just based on political bias but on the agencys racial history.

"Republicans don't just hate the IRS because it pays for things like highways and social security. There's history here. They hate what it represents. The IRS was created in 1862 specifically to fund the Civil War, to end slavery and to burn white supremacy to the ground," Friedman tweeted.

He added, "Abolish the IRS may sound like an innocuous anti-tax message, but it's literally a call to defund the U.S. military. The same military that crushed secessionists the first time. It's a fundamentally anti-government message. The insurrection continues."

This photo taken April 13, 2014 shows the headquarters of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in Washington. (AP Photo/J. David Ake)

MY IRS AUDIT FROM HELL, OVER A SMALL BOAT AND THE FOLLY OF 87,000 NEW AGENTS

Twitter users blasted Friedmans take, calling it "incredibly stupid" and "exceptionally dumb."

"Dumbest tweet I've seen today," former FEC Commissioner Brad Smith tweeted.

Journalist Kimberly Morin wrote, "Here in the wilds of Twitter we have yet another example of an incredibly stupid and ignorant tweet by an incredibly stupid and ignorant left-wing a--hole. #TaxationIsTheft coward."

"When I think of the IRS, I think, Dang nabbit, my great-great-great-great-grandpappy lost his eye in the Civil War. We must avenge his eye by not paying our taxes! The Lafayette Co. President Ellen Carmichael joked.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO)confirmed to Fox News that the IRS will need to raise the number of audits towards citizens earning less than $400,000. (iStock)

RealClearInvestigations senior writer Mark Hemingway explained, "The IRS was then used to fund the Union Army warring with Indians for the next several decades, presumably as part of that same quest to combat white supremacy."

"This is exceptionally dumb, of course. But it's also quite telling that leftists believe the IRS is the one that pays for stuff," The Federalist senior editor David Harsanyi wrote.

Conservative commentator Chad Felix Greene tweeted, "How are you possibly this embarrassingly ignorant?"

NEW YORK TIMES REPORT BLASTS REPUBLICANS FOR UNFOUNDED CONSPIRACY THEORIES ABOUT INCREASED IRS ENFORCEMENT

The IRS came under Republican criticism recently after it was discovered that President Bidens Inflation Reduction Act would include a massive expansion of the agency, including 87,000 new employees over the next ten years.

Despite reports from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) that confirmed this expansion would require raising audits on citizens earning under $400,000 per year, mainstream media outlets have largely called conservative concerns "unfounded."

President Biden's Inflation Reduction Act will double the IRS workforce over the next ten years. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

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Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler further attacked GOP lawmakers on Aug. 18 for "preying on peoples fears" on the IRS.

Lindsay Kornick is an associate editor for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to lindsay.kornick@fox.com and on Twitter: @lmkornick.

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Former Obama official suggests GOP opposes IRS because it was created to end slavery, burn White supremacy - Fox News

It may be hard to recall these days when a Democratic White House proudly rejects any guiderails from things such as economics or the Constitution. But back in the Obama years, they considered themselves the wonks. And Obamacare was supposed to be the triumph of the wonks.

As the law aged, its rickety construction became clearer, which is why most of the top-tier Democratic presidential candidates in 2020 ran on replacing Obamacare. Among other problems, the bills pay-fors, the revenue enhancements that would supposedly dampen the law's effects on the deficit and on inflation, all evaporated.

More specifically, Democrats repealed them, showing that they never really intended for the bill to reduce healthcare spending or pay for itself.

The CLASS ACT was a Ted Kennedy brainchild, creating national long-term care insurance. Democrats included it in Obamacare, and it was actually called a revenue raiser supposedly raising $87 billion over 10 years, because people would be paying premiums, and the benefits wouldnt go out the door until mostly after the 10-year window on which budget analyses are done.

It was a horrible idea, of course, and it was scrapped. That imaginary $87 billion in savings, however, was part of what allowed Obama and congressional Democrats to pretend the law was "paid for."

Another abandoned revenue raiser in Obamacare was an absurd and intrusive tax hike. The 1099 provision would have forced freelancers to file 1099s for almost any business transaction, such as buying equipment or hiring a repairman. Congress repealed that awful provision.

Obamacares Medical Device Tax was repealed. I wrote in 2013 about another false pay-for that Obama delayed: Obamacare was supposed to save money by cutting Medicare Advantage spending cuts would have become apparent last autumn. But the law also allowed HHS to run demonstration programs in Medicare, experiments to find new ways to improve care and reduce costs. So, Obama used most of that demonstration program money to postpone Medicare Advantage cuts until after the 2012 elections.

And now, yet another Obamacare pay-for has been gutted by Biden. Check out this video from back in the day:

Got it? By nationalizing the student lending industry, which previously had federal guarantees for private banks, Obamacare would raise $58 billion in revenue over a decade.

Some Democrats promised even more. Part of the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010 will make key changes to the student loan industry, Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) said. This measure will save taxpayers nearly $70 billion over 10 years.

So to all the other ways in which this student loan bailout is objectionable, here is another one. It is yet another abandonment of the lies used to sell Obamacare. Of all the bogus claims that it paid for itself, this is only the latest to fall apart.

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Long-term con: Obamacare was paid for by nationalizing student loans - Washington Examiner

Marcus Baram| Capital & Main

Six years after President Obamas ambitious attempt to expand overtime to millions of Americans was vigorously opposed by the business lobby and struck down by a conservative judge in Texas, President Biden is about to take another swing at the issue. And this time, its expected to face even stronger opposition due to a more divisive environment and the growing clout of a powerful new adversary gig economy giants like Uber and DoorDash.

The Department of Labor is intensively working on a proposal it plans to introduce in October. The proposal is widely expected to increase the cap that currently bars overtime for salaries from just above $35,000 to more than $50,000. It may also more narrowly define the exemptions that have long kept employees from earning time and a half enabling many more full-time salaried Americans to qualify for overtime.

The rule was expected to be introduced in April, but was pushed back to this fall while an army of lawyers and statisticians labor to make sure that it can withstand legal challenges from the business community.

It remains unclear how far the administration will go to overhaul the salary cap in general, full-time salaried workers currently have to earn less than $35,568 per year to qualify for overtime and the overtime threshold has not been updated in recent decades to keep pace with the cost of living and skyrocketing health care and housing costs. Sources close to the agency say that the Department of Labor may align the overtime rules closer to Californias standards for its workforce the states threshold for overtime is currently $62,400 for employers with at least 26 employees and $58,240 for employers with fewer than 26 employees and tighten the administrative exemption, which has been used to disqualify low wage fast food managers from earning overtime.

The Labor Departments current effort is heavily influenced by Obamas failed attempt to double the salary cap from $23,000 to almost $47,000, which was overturned by a federal judge in the final weeks of his presidency. At the time, the opposition to the rule was led by Republican lawmakers and industry lobbyists who argued that it would burden small businesses with extra costs.

This time around, the battle could prove to be even more intense, says David Weil, the architect of Obamas overtime overhaul whose nomination by Biden to the same post in his administration was shot down by Republican lawmakers and a few moderate Democrats Arizona Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly and West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin. Key to swaying those Democrats votes was the International Franchise Association, whose president, Matt Haller, told Politico that it sent a steady drumbeat of CEOs and franchisees virtually into Manchins, Sinemas and Kellys offices. During Weils confirmation hearings, the gig companies advocacy group App-Based Work Alliance pushed out tweets claiming that Weil supported an outdated workforce model that was rejected by gig workers who love their flexibility and independence.

Weeks after the vote, Haller crowed on the IFAs site that it was the first time since 1989 [that] a federal appointees confirmation was defeated on the floor of the U.S. Senate.

That battle could foreshadow a bitter fight over the overtime proposals. What was different [from the Obama-era debate] was an intense ground game focused on a few wavering Democrats and new players in the business lobby the platform companies like Uber and DoorDash who helped strengthen the existing players who are very much in opposition to anyone who they feel will be more vigilant in enforcing the law, says Weil. It was intense and hostile. It is a tougher environment.

The gig economy giants are fiercely opposed to laws that would extend labor protections like overtime to their armies of workers. DoorDash, Gopuff, Grubhub, HopSkipDrive, Instacart, Lyft, Shipt and Uber launched a new lobbying group called Flex in March. Those same companies collectively spent more than $6 million on lobbying last year with a focus on labor issues. Also in their sights is a long delayed Biden proposal to reverse a Trump era rule that made it easier for employers to classify workers as independent contractors rather than employees which prevents them from qualifying for labor protections like overtime and minimum wage. The Trump rule is estimated to cost workers more than $3.7 billion annually, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

In addition, longtime industry heavyweights like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the International Franchise Association are actively pressuring the agency on the overtime rule and spending money to wield their influence. In the first half of this year, the Chamber spent almost $16 million and the Business Roundtable spent almost $5 million lobbying members of Congress and federal agencies on a wide array of issues, including the overtime rule. In vigorously opposing Weils nomination, the Chamber sent a letter to several lawmakers last January to express its concern that Weil would again seek to unnecessarily raise this salary threshold.

Arrayed on the other side and pushing for expanded overtime protections are EPI, the National Employment Law Project, unions and progressive lawmakers such as Sherrod Brown, Democratic senator from Ohio.

Weil, who now teaches at Brandeis University, is confident that the administration can deliver. Whats key, he says, is to reach out to all the stakeholders from employers and the business lobby to unions and worker advocates throughout the process. You can do it in a way that protects more workers and is legally defensible and economically sustainable.

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US President Joe Biden could expand overtime for millions - Visalia Times-Delta and Tulare Advance-Register

Former president Donald Trump nixed a plan to receive his first dose of Covid-19 vaccine alongside three of his four living predecessors in the months following his recovery from the coronavirus, according to a new book by a pair of ex-White House employees.

Mr Trump and former first lady Melania Trump both received doses of the vaccine in January 2021, just before their time in the White House came to a close.

At the time, the question of whether Mr Trump would allow himself to be seen being injected with the mRNA-based vaccine was a topic of frequent discussion between reporters and what remained of the White Houses press operation.

According to the Daily Mail, ex-Trump aides Brian and Teresa Morganstern discuss the behind-the-scenes talks regarding a potential bipartisan joint vaccination photo opportunity in their new book, Vignettes and Vino.

Mr Morganstern recounted how Mr Trumps communications staff began brainstorming potential scenarios for Mr Trump to get his shot in public as a result of all the press interest in whether he would get the shot or not.

One of the ideas was to have the president invite the former presidents to the White House or to some other site to have all of them receive the vaccine together in a show of unity, said Mr Morganstern, who served as a deputy press secretary and deputy communications director to Mr Trump at the time.

The ex-presidents advisers believed that showing Mr Trump getting a Covid-19 shot could boost public confidence in the vaccines, so Mr Morganstern and another Trump aide attempted to convince Mr Trump of the utility of appearing alongside former presidents Bill Clinton, George W Bush and Barack Obama.

Mr Morganstern wrote that Mr Trumps response was to contort his face in a way that conveyed, shall we say, a healthy scepticism.

He said: I'll get the shot. Do they want me to get the shot? I'll get the shot, the ex-Trump spokesperson wrote, adding later that the ex-president declined to do so alongside his predecessors.

Regarding an event with the former presidents, he said: Nah, I'm a different kind of a guy, ya know?

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Trump nixed plan to get vaccinated alongside Clinton, Bush and Obama, new book reveals - The Independent

To the editor:

Not sure if its misinformation or intentional disinformation, but to state that Social Secruity Cost of Living Adjustment is purely based on three months is patently absurd.

The fact is the SS COLA is based on the third quarter of this year compared to the third quarter of last year. It is estimated that SS recipients will get between a 9 and 10% increase. To state otherwise is a lie.

People have stated here that the former Republican party is being demonized, yet they themselves have embraced the demon. Seriously, if President Barrack Obama or anyone else had taken hundreds of pages of Top Secret and above documents from the White House would they be OK with it? Cmon. Even with the actual documents back in government possession who knows what has been copied or transmitted to our enemies, after all, associates of the former resident of the White House have been convicted of nefarious associations with Vladimir Putin, and the former resident spoke highly of Putin, even after his invasion of Ukraine.

Bill Darcey

Foxboro

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Imagine the uproar if Obama had taken classified docs - The Sun Chronicle