Why did the House of Representatives vote to cut IRS funding to give to Israel?

New Speaker of the House, Representative Michael Johnson, had the first major vote under his leadership passed on Thursday evening. The bill would send Israel an additional $14 billion in funding for its invasion of Gaza. This money would be cobbled together by cutting the same amount funding for the IRS, the organisation tasked with organising the tax system.

214 Republicans voted for the bill alongside twelve Democrats. Two Republicans dissented and voted in opposition. While the bill has passed the House, Senate Democrats and the White House have said they would not support the bill, meaning the House is the furthest it will go.

The IRS received a boost in its annual budget under the Inflation Reduction Act passed in 2022, with a primary objective of cracking down on tax evasion. The Republicans have made this increase in the tax authorities budget a major target, and this plan is another attempt to have that additional funding reduced, as evidenced by this bill.

The US is Israel’s staunchest ally, as proved by the near-unanimous support on Capitol Hill for some form of funding for Israel despite the United Nations describing the affect on Palestinians in Gaza being in “grave risk of genocide”.

Though this bill will not pass, the will undoubtedly be more attempts at funding bills in the coming week.

What happened to funding for Ukraine?

While the war on Gaza has focused the world’s attention, the major European conflict between Ukraine and Russia has largely disappeared from mouths and media outlets. The last major action of the year was the much-touted Ukrainian summer offensive.

However, it appears as though it was a disaster. The offensive captured 154 square miles, the equivalent size of Detroit. According to a recent article in Time Magazine, estimates are that 100,000 people have been killed on both sides over the near-two-year span of the war. American patience with continued funding for Ukraine is at a low-ebb, if polling is to be believed.

“The scariest thing is that part of the world got used to the war in Ukraine,” Zelensky says. “Exhaustion with the war rolls along like a wave. You see it in the United States, in Europe. And we see that as soon as they start to get a little tired, it becomes like a show to them”

The original White House plan for a funding bill of foreign wars was to send a $106 billion package that included funding for both Ukraine and Israel. However, while Republican support for Israel is unwavering, a split in the party means it has refused to back additional funding to Ukraine so far. Thus, the bill has been split by the House speaker.

It remains to be seen what the future of the current Israel-only bill is and what funding the US government will send to either ally in future.