'I am embarrassed ': Republican dismembers new Trump hire

Politico reports a Republican congressman, who is also a tax writer, destroyed President Donald Trump’s pick for head of the IRS and the Social Security Administration.

“This is unacceptable,” Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio) told IRS CEO Frank Bisignano after Bisignano offered vague answers to lawmakers’ inquiries about tax-filing season and Trump’s Big Beautiful bill’s impact on it, and other issues.

Bisignano got his dressing down at a Wednesday hearing before the House Ways and Means Committee.

“You really need to come in here and answer the questions that these members ask you directly, and saying ‘I’ll come see you in your office,’ even to me, on very basic questions that I’m asking you, is really upsetting,” continued Miller. “I am very embarrassed right now for my side.”

Trump created Bisignano’s position as “CEO” of the IRS to circumvent the Senate confirmation process for agency nominees. But now, even GOP lawmakers appear concerned that Bisignano’s appointment should have been scrutinized. Unlike other IRS leaders, Politico reports that Bisignano does not have a tax background, and he is currently also serving as head of the Social Security Administration.

When nominating the former Fiserv CEO as Social Security administrator last year, Trump argued Bisignano “takes troubled entities and turns them around.” But current Fiserv chief Mike Lyons warned that Bisignano had made major missteps as CEO, overinflating sales projections and relying on short-term cost-cutting before selling his stock for $500 million.

ABC News reported Bisignano claiming to having to "Google Social Security” when Trump offered him the position, according to leaked audio.

On Wednesday, however, Miller was vexed by Bisignano’s non-answers to inquiries about the IRS agency’s plans to tax digital assets. But Bisignano’s empty responses to lawmakers’ questions on less arcane IRS issues drove Miller to fury. Bisignano, for example, appeared to be unacquainted with Trump’s signature tax break, despite the bill’s controversial passage last year through the budget reconciliation process to bypass Senate filibusters.

Politico reports Bisignano told lawmakers he was also ignorant of a so-called “marriage penalty” built into a new deduction for tips, and he confessed to being unable to identify occupations ineligible for a new deduction for overtime pay.

Miller also dismantled Bisignano’s advisers accompanying him to the hearing while appearing to contribute nothing to his answers.

“You need to do a better job of educating the IRS commissioner about the questions that he’s coming here to answer,” Miller told them. “If I was working for a principal, I would never let them walk into a hearing like this.”

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