Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) disagreed with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo on Sunday after she accused Democrats of "bank surveillance" because of a new proposal from the Biden administration.
The new tax law proposal would require banks to report the total dollar amount of annual transactions to and from bank accounts if it's greater than $600 in a year. The information would be used to flag the accounts of people who may have underpaid taxes.
But outlets like Infowars have twisted the proposal to suggest that the IRS will be spying on each individual transaction.
Bartiromo added to the misinformation during her interview with Khanna on Sunday.
"Is this bank surveillance still in this spending bill?" she asked.
"Maria, let me just put some facts out there," Khanna replied. "First of all, the bill does not in any way surveil individual transactions. There is no oversight of individual transactions. All it does is ask the banks to give the total amount that was deposited and the total amount that was spent. And the reason is because there are a lot of businesses in this country that aren't paying the taxes that you and I pay."
"So if the banks have to give a statement on interest, why don't they give the total net outflows and net inflows so people pay their tax," he added.
Bartiromo wrongly suggested that individual "transactions" would be monitored.
"You say it's not transactions but you just said it's the total deposit -- what people are taking out and what people taking in," she said. "I mean, $600 or even $10,000 captures most Americans."
"It would be over $10,000," Khanna explained. "But it would not be, here's what you spend it on and here was the deposit. It's just going to say, did you make money in the year? And if you made money, pay your tax. Just like banks tell you if you made interest, you have to pay your tax. Just like you get a W-2. The idea is just that businesses should pay their tax."
"And I don't think this is going to surveil or snoop into people's privacy in any way," he remarked. "Because banks won't have the ability to go after the individual transactions."
"But it is surveillance," Bartiromo shot back. "Because the banks have to report that but I don't want to get into the weeds."
