The union that represents the nation’s Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents announced Wednesday that it is endorsing Democrat Kamala Harris for president in this year’s election.
Vice President Harris has played a role in “one of the most pro-labor administrations in history,” the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) explained in a press release announcing its decision:
“The administration also delivered agency budgets that provide federal employees with additional staffing and resources, including significant new investments to rebuild the IRS under the Inflation Reduction Act.”
Indeed, the Inflation Reduction Act, for which Harris cast the deciding vote to break a Senate deadlock, boosts the IRS budget by $80 billion, enabling the agency to hire an additional 87,000 employees – while increasing the union’s membership in the process.
However, the IRS expansion won’t just increase union membership, it’ll also help the agency to collect an additional $5 trillion of tax increases Harris wants, analysis by Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) finds:
“Harris-proposed tax increases will kill jobs in the private sector but create jobs for IRS agents.
“Agents certainly appreciate her call to make the IRS even larger and more powerful if she wins the presidency. Agents will be hired and deployed to implement the $5 trillion of tax increases Harris wishes to impose over the next decade.”
ATR research also found that 97% of political contributions by the IRS agents’ union went to Democrats in the 2022 election cycle. In all, the union gave $635,170 to Democrats during that election cycle.
NTEU also “strongly supports” Harris’ running mate, tax-happy Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, who has a dubious history of budgetary stewardship, ATR notes:
“Walz is also a big tax-hiker and is keen to take it national. As Minnesota governor he blew through an $18 billion budget surplus and still managed to raise taxes on the middle class.
“Walz looks under every rock to extract more money out of hard working Minnesotans. He doubled fees on middle class fishing boats and even raised kayak and canoe fees.
“Walz said he was ‘very proud to have voted for cap and trade’ — a bill to impose an enormous energy tax increase on the American people — while a member of Congress.”
Oddly, the IRS agents’ union also cites “Harris’ commitment to sign the 2024 bipartisan border bill” and to increase U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) staff as a reason for endorsing her for president.