Lauren Boebert’s House mic is CUT during attack on inflation bill

Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert had her mic cut on the House floor Friday as she blasted the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act.

‘You are sacrificing American families at the altar of climate change. You’re using the power of the federal government for armed robbery,’ Boebert insisted. 

The $370 billion bill is expected to pass the House with only Democratic votes later Friday afternoon. 

It includes a number of green energy and healthcare provisions and provides funding to bolster the workforce at the Internal Revenue Service. 

The Colorado Republican argued that encouraging inflation data was evidence that the bill didn’t need to be passed. 

‘Mr Speaker, isn’t it so? Joe Biden himself said inflation rates is at 0 percent. So what the heck are we doing here? Why are we passing the so-called Inflation Reduction Act if it’s at O percent,’ Boebert said. 

‘The gentlewoman’s time has expired,’ the chair said, banging a gavel, interrupting the Colorado congresswoman. 

Boebert continued to plow through her speech. 

‘And it does the exact opposite of what Americans need right now. This is just another con game by the Democrats calling something one thing and saying another. This is making the IRS – with armed agents – larger than the Pentagon, the State Department, the FBI,’ she continued, shouting over the gavel and other members yelling. 

Her mic was eventually cut. 

The Republicans then gave her 30 additional seconds to finish up.  

‘This bill hires 87,000 new IRS agents and they are armed and the job description tells them that they need to be required to carry a firearm and expected to use deadly force if necessary,’ she continued. 

‘Excessive taxation is theft,’ she said. 

Republicans have highlighted IRS job postings for positions in the Criminal Investigation Division, which says agents would need to be comfortable carrying a firearm and using deadly force. 

In a MarketWatch explainer of IRS hiring practices, a spokesperson explained that this was the norm for the small amount of law enforcement hires within the government agency. 

‘The job description is consistent with previous special-agent announcements for the same position and consistent with announcements from other federal law-enforcement agencies,’ a spokeswoman said. 

She added that the IRS’ Criminal Investigation Division is the federal government’s sixth largest law enforcement agency. 

‘You’re using the power of the federal government for armed robbery on the taxpayers,’ Boebert went on.

‘I can only see why this was rushed through committee and put on the floor …,’ Boebert said, getting cut off, as she had run out of time. 

Boebert relented, with Democratic Rep. John Yarmuth up next.  

‘I will say in response to the gentlewoman from Colorado. This is typical of what the Republicans are doing. First of all, they’re making up numbers,’ he said, disputing the 87,000 figure GOP lawmakers had been tossing around. ‘That is a totally fabricated number.’ 

The number originated from a 2021 Treasury Department estimate that the IRS would bring on 87,000 new hires over a number of years, encompassing extra auditors but also employees to fill the spots of those retiring.  

The IRS has lost 50,000 employees in the last five years, according to The Associated Press, which called claims like Boebert’s misleading. 

‘And the idea that they’re armed,’ Yarmuth went on. ‘I know that Ms. Boebert would like everybody to be armed as they are in her restaurant. But that’s not what IRS agents do.’

Yarmuth was referring to Boebert’s shuttered Colorado restaurant, Shooters Grill, which was located in the aptly-named Rifle, Colorado, and where servers carried guns. 

‘So I would implore my Republican colleagues to cut out the scare tactics, quit making things up and debate the substance of this bill,’ Yarmuth said, receiving applause from his Democratic colleagues.