Stay tuned for daily updates to this list!
NICE:
Congresswoman Carol Miller (R-W.Va.) for leading the fight to repeal Biden’s IRS 1099-K $600 paperwork nightmare.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) for leading the effort in the House to curb the Biden administration’s weaponization of the federal government. Jordan’s oversight work led the IRS to finally end its “surprise home visit” habit.
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) 1) for exposing the fact that federal agency office buildings in the DC swamp are largely empty as bureaucrats can’t be bothered to show up for work. None of the agencies are using even 50% of their available office space. The EPA for example uses a mere 17% of its office space: the agency that admonishes you for your gas stove expects you to send in your hard-earned money to heat and cool their empty building. Ernst’s list of agency office space utilization can be found here. 2) For her bill to disarm the IRS.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) for enacting business tax relief this year and announcing universal school choice as his top policy priority for 2024.
Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte for signing the largest income tax cut in state history.
Ohio Republican state legislators for coming together to pass another significant income tax cut that flattens brackets down to just two, with a 3.5% top rate, as their march to zero continues.
North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, Rep. Craig Headland, and House and Senate Republican lawmakers for enacting major income tax cuts that tied the state for the lowest top rate among states that impose an income tax.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Speaker Paul Renner, and the state’s Republican supermajority for passing Paycheck Protection, tort reform, and for continuing to cut the commercial rent tax.
Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo (R) for setting a new veto record in rejecting left-wing legislation and protecting Nevada’s status as a low-tax state.
Argentina’s new President Javier Milei for signing the Taxpayer Protection Pledge and vowing to cut off his arm if he ever raises taxes.
Jonas Torrico and Pablo Dono of the Argentine Taxpayers Association for promoting the Taxpayer Protection Pledge in Argentina, and securing over a dozen new Congressional signers, in addition to new President Javier Milei.
House Education & Workforce Chairwoman Virginia Foxx for defending worker freedom and the right to self-determination.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for signing property tax relief, a model preemption bill, and for endorsing primary challengers to Texas House Republicans who voted against school choice.
Mississippi House Speaker Phil Gunn, House Ways & Means Chairman Trey Lamar, House Speaker Pro Tempore Jason White, and Gov. Tate Reeves for their commitment to phasing out the state income tax.
Iowa Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver, Senate Ways & Means Chair Dan Dawson, House Speaker Pat Grassley, and Governor Kim Reynolds for their commitment to making Iowa a low-tax state.
Kentucky Senate President Robert Stivers and House Speaker David Osborne for continuing to phase down the state income tax.
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) for spearheading historic tax relief that delivered significant savings to hardworking Virginians.
West Virginia Republicans for passing a for a 21% cut across all income tax brackets and putting West Virginia’s income tax on the road to zero.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) for his leadership in protecting worker freedom and for his fisticuffsmanship.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) for (1) taking the initiative to prevent inflation from eroding Americans’ capital gains by introducing the Capital Gains Inflation Relief Act of 2023. Other provisions of the tax code are already indexed to inflation—capital gains should be too and (2) stopping an ill-conceived effort to crush innovation by saddling AI developers with frivolous lawsuits.
Congressman Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.) for ardently opposing the tenure of Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su and introducing legislation to end it.
Arizona House Speaker Ben Toma, Senate President Warren Peterson, and Republicans in the House and Senate for delivering legislation that will eliminate the residential rental tax.
Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt for calling to eliminate the state income tax, enacting universal school choice, and yet another criminal justice win that will improve public safety through hard-earned second chances.
Texas Representative Dustin Burrows, for introducing field preemption legislation, which was the top achievement in Texas this year. Rep. Burrows’ preemption bill is now viewed as a national model for reining in regulatory costs.
Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania Judge Michael Wojcik for striking down the attempt to impose cap and trade in Pennsylvania by executive fiat.
NAUGHTY:
The IRS for inking a contract to shovel up to $2.6 billion of taxpayer funds to the firm that employed the IRS thief who stole thousands of Americans’ private tax files. The thief was rooting around in IRS systems for years and gave the stolen private tax files to a progressive group.
IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel for his dishonesty. Werfel repeatedly asserted to congress and the American people that the IRS was simply doing a “Direct File” feasibility study as authorized by the Inflation Reduction Act. Werfel assured congress and the American public that he’d wait for the report and “reflect” with congress before making any decisions. In reality, the IRS was secretly working the entire time on building a prototype software system with plans for a 2024 launch, as revealed in a Washington Post scoop on May 15, 2023. Congress did not give the IRS the authority to do this.
IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel (AGAIN) for dismissing the significance of the Lois Lerner-era IRS denial of non-profit status to conservative groups critical of then-President Barack Obama and then-Vice President Biden.
As part of rebuilding trust with the public, it is important for the IRS to acknowledge the actions of the Lerner-era IRS. As noted by an Aug. 2015 Senate Finance Committee report, only ONE conservative group was granted nonprofit status by the IRS over a period of more than three years: “Due to the circuitous process implemented by Lerner, only one conservative political advocacy organization was granted tax-exempt status between February 2009 and May 2012.”
But in an April 2023 Ways and Means committee hearing, IRS commissioner Werfel hand-waved away the scandal as merely an “allegation.”
The Supermajority Democrat California Legislature which is petitioning the state supreme court alongside Gov. Newsom to prevent a highly popular taxpayer protection initiative from appearing on the ballot. The taxpayer protection initiative would require voter approval for all new or higher taxes passed in Sacramento, among other guardrails.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) for flip flopping and coming out against school choice, and for trying to impose cap and trade in Pennsylvania by executive order.
President Joe Biden for repeatedly extending the student loan repayment moratorium, costing taxpayers $150 billion, attempting to forgive $400 billion in student loan debt, and, when the Supreme Court struck down his attempt, changing income-driven repayment rules through the “SAVE Plan” to bypass the ruling and forgive hundreds of billions of dollars more.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen for (1) using her position as chair of the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) to ignore court precedent and remove all cost-benefit analyses when adding regulations to nonbank financial institutions and (2) expanding the IRS’s ability to snoop on digital asset transactions.
The IRS for retaliating against whistleblowers assigned to the Hunter Biden tax case. From July 19, 2023 congressional testimony: “Since I made these disclosures that are legally protected, the IRS has chosen to retaliate against me in multiple ways.” – IRS agent / whistleblower Gary Shapley.
Kansas Senator Dennis Pyle for shamelessly blocking historic income tax relief for every Kansan taxpayer – a callous act of hypocrisy from the self-described “principled conservative.” (Dishonorable mentions: Sens. Alicia Straub and Robert Olson, who supported the $1.4 billion tax cut on three separate occasions, but joined Pyle and every Democrat to kill it at the last minute.)
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) for vetoing income tax relief.
Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) for introducing the big-government Credit Card Competition Act.
Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su for overstaying her tenure and imposing Biden’s pro-union boss regulatory agenda.
The IRS which got caught illegally backdating penalty documents and signatures in U.S. Tax Court in order to run up the bills on taxpayers. The court caught the IRS lying. While testifying to congress, IRS Commissioner Werfel declined to say whether anyone has been fired for this practice. It is suspected the backdating incident is not an isolated occurrence within the IRS.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai for dropping longstanding U.S. digital trade demands in talks with the World Trade Organization. Tai has completely surrendered to the progressive activists who want American companies to fill the coffers of unelected foreign regulators.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) for reintroducing her widely mocked antitrust pet project that would put bureaucrats in charge of the economy that failed last Congress. Apparently, Klobuchar does not heed to the definition of insanity, which is trying to do the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results.
The IRS which sent an agent on an “unannounced and unprompted” visit to the home of journalist Matt Taibbi on the same day he was in Washington D.C. testifying about government abuse. In a March 27, 2023 letter, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) revealed that an IRS agent had visited Taibbi’s private residence on the very same day Taibbi testified to Jordan’s committee. Jordan’s letter is here.
Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan for waging frivolous lawsuits against successful American companies, trying to use antitrust policy to push woke social goals, ignoring ethics officials, running an agency with a delinquent law license, alienating career staff, “running” the agency from New York, and smashing long-held norms to expand her agency’s power over the economy.
New Mexico’s Environmental Improvement Board for ignoring the testimony of 3,512 New Mexicans – representing every community, tribe, and House District in the state – to push through one of the strictest electric vehicle mandates in the nation.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson for championing an $800 million tax increase, despite Chicago already having the second-highest sales tax (10.25%) and third-highest property tax burden in the country.
Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) for introducing partisan legislation that imposes distortionary caps on interest rates for consumer financial products. Big-government caps will only reduce access to credit for certain borrowers.
Vermont Senator Christopher Bray for slyly renaming his massive energy tax hike from “Clean Heat Standard” to the “Affordable Heat Act” after its failure last year.
New York’s Supermajority Democrat state legislature for banning gas appliances and building systems, continuing the radical, net-zero carbon policies that are destroying manufacturing and affordable, reliable energy.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Beach Club) for his AMICUS Act which aims to stop pro-freedom groups from submitting amicus briefs in Supreme Court cases by forcing disclosure of their contributors so they can be harassed and attacked.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) for 1) Abandoning his support for Right to Work laws — the right to work without being coerced into paying union dues against your will as a condition of employment and 2) Mimicking Democrats and introducing big-government legislation that imposes distortionary caps on interest rates specifically for credit cards and 3) for pushing a bill to obliterate American AI development. The bill will undermine U.S. deterrence of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
Federal Communications Commission Chair Jessica Rosenworcel for abandoning her record of bipartisanship to pursue not one but two socialistic schemes to take over the internet — Digital Discrimination and Net Neutrality.
Rep. Lance Gooden (R-Texas) for introducing the House version of the big-government Credit Card Competition Act.
The City Council of Salem, Oregon for passing a new local income tax of 0.814%. That tax hike went on to be overwhelmingly rejected by 81% of voters in November.