Dear Editor,
Is is true?
Conservative Corner columnist TJ Smith notes that representatives of both major parties approve spending without supporting the taxes necessary to pay for the spending. Voters have supported the spending by spending the largesse while resisting tax increases to pay for the increased spending. The city of Billings spent ARPA funds for police and fire salaries. Montana is spending federal money for infrastructure and benefiting financially from federal lands and the tourists’ dollars spent to visit Yellowstone and Glacier.
Republicans have tried to defund the IRS claiming they are coming after you. You probably pay your taxes every year; we do. On March 1 of this year The Internal Revenue Service is going after 125,000 high-earning Americans who raked in more than $400,000 annually but did not file tax returns between 2017 and 2021. Some 25,000 tax-skirting earners bringing in more than $1 million annually will receive a non-compliance letter from the US revenue service. The notice also will be sent to more than 100,000 people with incomes between $400,000 and $1 million between tax years 2017 and 2021. I know I have to pay to fund government (even though I am a fierce critic of some of the spending priorities). I resent the failure to fund IRS so they can hold all of accountable to pay our fair share.
TJ claims Jon Tester spent $1.25 million dining out during his time in office. Common sense should alert any reader that Jon Tester did not eat $1.25 million worth of food. That statement is false and provable by reviewing the campaign finance filings. For the last four calendar years, Senator Tester reported $199,757.13 in campaign spending on meals catered for campaign events. This includes multiple Montanans who donated the catered food to the campaign and were reported as an “in kind” donation.
By contrast, FEC auditors said they identified more than $600,000 in itemized receipts that by the Steve Daines for Montana campaign were improperly reported or not reported at all, and that the campaign received a total of more than $1.4 million in net proceeds from joint fundraising and joint fundraising committees that also was misreported. Daines campaign called it ‘minor bookkeeping issue”. The Steve Daines for Montana committee was given opportunities to explain the accounting or appear to defend its campaign practices before the FEC, it declined.
Pam Ellis
Billings
