House introduced aid package to Israel that depends on cutting IRS budget

The House of Representatives on Monday presented an aid package for Israel, which includes $14.3 billion. The most relevant thing about the package is that it does not include a single dollar for Ukraine (a topic of debate since some congressmen wanted to unify everything in one legislation) and that the money consists of budget cuts to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). This is one of the first bills under Speaker Mike Johnson in the House.

The initiative includes one point in particular that Democrats will not like very much: millions of cuts to the IRS, particularly funds included in the Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law in 2022 by President Joe Biden.

At the same time, the aid package does not comply with the White House's intentions to combine money for Ukraine and Israel in the same legislation, complicating the addition of Democratic support in either chamber.

Among other things, the legislation includes $4 billion for the Iron Dome and David's Sling defense systems while adding another $1.2 billion for the development of the Iron Beam system. The House Rules Committee will begin discussing the text on Wednesday.

Some Democrats have already begun to criticize the bill, and one of them was Ben Cardin (D-MA), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The senator called the IRS cuts a "poison pill."

Another to speak out was Jewish Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), who accused Republicans of playing "political games" and called the measure "offensive."

"Support for defending Israel should not come with conditions, be it cutting foreign military financing by 30% or offsetting aid in a time of crucial need. I am deeply disturbed by Speaker Johnson playing political games with Israeli emergency funding, something our nation has never done in a time of crisis," she said in a statement released shortly before the content of the aid package was released.

"When your neighbor's house is on fire, you don't haggle over the price of the garden hose. Speaker Johnson's political games are offensive to all pro-Israel Americans, and I hope he reverses course immediately," Wasserman added.

Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) announced that he would vote yes despite cuts to the IRS. "Foreign Policy and National Security being conducted as a future political mailer. 'You chose the IRS over Israel.' I am not going to take the bait. There are American Hostages. This is not a game," he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.