I would be surprised if any American looks forward to Tax Day. No one enjoys writing a check to the IRS or contemplating just how much of their paycheck winds up in the federal government’s pocket, especially when the government doesn’t have a great track record with making the best use of those dollars. And as unpleasant as April 15 can be, the reckless tax-and-spending agenda that President Biden is putting forward could make it even more painful.

Americans have already suffered from three years of Bidenflation, but instead of abandoning his big-government agenda, President Biden is again proposing the same kind of reckless tax-and-spending policies that contributed to inflation in the first place. His proposed budget is full of new spending programs and $5 trillion in tax increases. While the president claims his tax hikes will only affect the wealthy and big corporations, the reality is that higher taxes affect the entire economy. Together these tax hikes would make America less competitive, slow our economic growth, reduce job opportunities and wages, and lead to even higher prices. And as lower, Republican-passed, across-the-board tax rates are set to expire in 2025, the president has presented no plan to protect most Americans from a tax hike.

The president’s proposed budget would also enable an additional $100 billion-plus boost to the IRS budget over the next decade. In 2022, Democrats approved nearly $80 billion on top of the agency’s annual budget, the majority of which was directed toward enforcement and audits of American taxpayers. As Democrats were forcing through a bill that would supersize the IRS, Republicans were trying to protect everyday Americans from increased IRS audits. Every Democrat senator voted against our amendment to do just that. As a recent report found, the agency has still not specified how it will prevent increased audits on households earning less than $400,000.

Unfortunately, there are still more issues at the IRS that should concern taxpayers. In addition to the IRS’s troubling history of mishandling and protecting taxpayer information, the agency has also failed to comply with a federal law banning TikTok on government devices, which was enacted because of the app’s threat to national security and ties to the Chinese Communist Party.

The American people should be able to trust that when they file their taxes, their information will be safe and their tax dollars will be used efficiently and effectively. The Biden administration has demonstrated it is more interested in raising taxes than in raising the standards at the IRS.

Tax Day is another reminder that the government works for the American people. I’ll continue to hold the Biden administration and the IRS accountable to protect taxpayers from unnecessary headaches and future generations from the negative effects of the president’s reckless tax-and-spending ideas.