BACK TO THE IRS: But if that $80 billion is going to be a non-starter for Democrats, the amount that Congress gives to the IRS during the regular appropriations process could be another story. We say this a lot these days, but November's election results will matter quite a bit for the IRS funding debate next year. Republicans are favored to win the House, but control of the Senate is more up in the air — and the GOP could have more leverage in next year's government funding debates if they run both chambers next year. But here's what we know, for now: The conservative House Freedom Caucus already is signaling that it wants to be aggressive on spending matters, which could mean some brinkmanship on government funding could be on tap for next year. (That could also be true for the debt ceiling, in what would likely be a more serious standoff.) Clearly, Republicans think that they can gain some political advantages from all this new IRS funding, which could make the annual appropriation for the agency even more of a target. (The $80 billion is mandatory funding, meaning it can't really be touched in the normal appropriations process.) Also worth noting: IRS funding, and government spending in other areas, started taking a dive the last time Republicans took over the House — back in 2010, which also happened to be after two years of a new Democratic administration. And at least in the last decade or so, Republicans haven't particularly suffered any lasting political damage from government shutdowns. Finally: It's not totally clear whether Senate Republicans would want to be as aggressive as the House GOP in going after IRS funding next year, no matter if they win the majority or not. For instance, Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee wrote a letter to IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig last week that asked for further details on how the agency planned to spend the $80 billion it's scheduled to get over the next decade — including in some areas where GOP tax writers (and Democrats, for that matter) want to see real improvements, like taxpayer services and technology. THE TAX-CUTTING DEBATE ACROSS THE POND: The markets haven't sounded too keen on the British government's tax-cutting plans. But the new Conservative regime's leaders are making it clear they're not backing away from those tax relief ideas, and are in fact relishing the comparisons of their economic point-of-view to Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. "What I'm determined to do as prime minister and what the chancellor is determined to do is make sure we are incentivizing businesses to invest, and we're also helping ordinary people with their taxes," Prime Minister Liz Truss told CNN's "State of the Union." As for that chancellor of the exchequer, Kwasi Kwarteng, he told the BBC that there's "more to come" on tax cuts. Kwarteng rolled out what's been called the biggest tax relief package in Britain in a half century on Friday, which would scrap the top 45 percent income tax rate, cut the basic income tax rate from 20 percent to 19 percent and reversing a hike in national insurance contributions. Those tax increases, and Kwarteng's vow that more are to come, helped drive a dive in the pound, as Bloomberg noted. Meantime, the opposition in the U.K. believe that the Conservatives tax cuts has given them a political opening. The Liberal Democrats released some research asserting that workers making around 25,000 pounds a year will face a tax increase in the coming years, because the government is freezing the threshold at which people start paying income tax — a move which will more than offset the benefits from the 1-point drop in the basic rate. At the same time, Keir Starmer, the leader of the Labor Party, said his party would roll back the elimination of the top income tax rate if they took power, saying it made no sense to offer tax cuts at the top end when regular Britons were struggling with inflation and high energy costs. (Starmer added that he had no problem with the cut in the basic rate.)
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