White House Adviser Says ‘No’ to Spending Cuts, but ‘Yes’ to Tougher IRS Enforcement Discussions

White House economic adviser Jared Bernstein talks to reporters at the White House, in Washington, on Feb. 5, 2021. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

A White House adviser said “no” to future spending cuts, but “yes” to tougher Internal Revenue Service enforcement talks.

On Jan. 18, Jared Bernstein, a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, told MSNBC’s Katy Tur that the Biden administration does not think it is the right time for Congress to discuss government spending cuts in the context of raising the debt ceiling.

However, he said that the White House is willing to talk about “raising the revenue that is owed to us” via IRS enforcement to “make sure people are paying, especially those in the top 1 percent, paying what they owe.”

The new Republican House majority has promised they were prepared to force the Biden administration and the Democrat-controlled Senate to accept spending cuts.

GOP-Led House Demands Biden Administration Accept Spending Cuts

Several powerful GOP legislators have long complained about out-of-control spending for years, which has dramatically increased the budget deficit.

This is despite the fact that Republican leaders conceded passage of the December 2022 omnibus package and the pandemic stimulus bill almost three years ago.

Fiscal critics also want to pursue alleged billions of dollars in waste at various government departments in Washington, which is another factor in raising the federal deficit.

House Republicans have stated that they are reluctant to raise the federal debt ceiling any further and have called on the White House to discuss slashing excess spending instead, which Bernstein refused.

“That’s a conversation that we should have around budget time, when we talk about what’s on the table and what isn’t, and there will be a good time to have that talk," he said.

The new House has even prepared a worst-case contingency plan in case the U.S. government defaulted on its debt obligations, a situation that the nation has never faced.

Bernstein warned MSNBC’s Ali Velshi last week that if Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling in time to prevent the federal government from defaulting, it would lead to a major financial disaster for this country.

White House Economic Advisor Says That They Will Not Negotiate With House Republicans

“I think one thing we can talk about right now, though, because we’ve seen these ideas come from the House Republicans, is simply raising the revenue that is owed to us,” Bernstein said.

The White House advisor then attacked House Republicans for gutting spending in part of the Inflation Reduction Act that increased the number of IRS agents by 87,000 and expanded enforcement programs.

Bernstein noted that the Congressional Budget Office said that the congressional proposal to cut funding from the IRS would cost the federal government $115 billion and add to the deficit.

“So, the first thing that these supposed fiscal hawks want to do is come in and increase the budget deficit by over $100 billion by letting wealthy tax cheats get away with evading their taxes,” Bernstein said.

“Again, this is exactly the opposite of what this president wants to do, and it flies in the face of tax fairness. That’s the right place to start—make sure people are paying, especially those in the top 1 percent, paying what they owe—when it comes to negotiating spending,” he stated.

He changed the discussion to discuss the White House’s efforts to reduce Medicare payments by negotiating drug prices with pharmaceutical companies and also praised President Joe Biden’s green energy policy.