Dem Bill Would Pile 23 Times More Tax-Debt Cash on IRS Enforcement than On 'Services' for the Serfs

P. Gardner Goldsmith | October 29, 2021
DONATE
Font Size

Many Americans have shared with each other information about how the Biden/Dem majority want to increase by 87,000 the army of IRS agents “eating out our substance” as Thomas Jefferson might have described it. But a new analysis of the Democrat-pushed $3.5 Trillion “2022 Budget Reconciliation” reveals that the proposal would see the invasive, aggressive, oppressive side of the tax monolith’s activity increased 23 times more than the so-called “services” it offers to us – the ACTUAL servants – in order to facilitate that glorious euphemism “tax compliance.”

Isabelle Morales writes for Americans for Tax Reform:

Out of nearly $80 billion in new IRS funding, $44.887 billion, more than half, will go directly towards enforcement. The agency will receive a comparatively meager $1.93 billion in funding for taxpayer services, which include things like pre-filing assistance and education, filing and account services, and taxpayer advocacy services.

As Morales does, many might ask why INCREASING the IRS budget in any way is accepted as the norm, let alone wonder why increased “enforcement” is pushed 23 times more than other IRS functions.

Any new IRS funding should be alarming given the IRS has a history of incompetence and corruption. In fact, most recently, the progressive group ProPublica announced it had the tax returns of thousands of taxpayers stretching back 15 years. This sensitive taxpayer data was either obtained through an unauthorized leak by an IRS employee or through a data breach – either way the IRS failed to safeguard taxpayer information.

Related: IRS Denies Religious Group's Exemption, Claiming Christian Principles Promote 'Republicans'

But, as laudatory as the observation is, it implies acceptance of a number of ethically, constitutionally, and economically erroneous assumptions. First, the very concept of taxation is corrupt. It is expropriation of another person’s belongings without his or her consent. Taking something that someone else peacefully acquired is immoral, and having more people “say” it’s okay to take that property makes it no more moral.

The levels of IRS incompetence might vary, but its core idea that what you earned is not really yours and that YOU are vile for wanting to be left alone? That is always, always, offensively immoral and corrupt.

This is the false dichotomy between a thug-shakedown organization hiring more thuggish “enforcers” and it spending money on “helping” people comply with the thuggish demands.

One thinks of two mobsters entering his corner store, the first being the muscle-bound “enforcer,” the other, the smiling gangster who will “help you” clean out your safe and put it in his carry-all.

A thief doesn’t “help” someone. A thief doesn’t “serve.” And to call stealing and coercion “services” is insulting and Orwellian.

And these observations are not slights on Morales’ reporting. On a day-to-day basis, this information about the potential that the IRS will become even more invasive and onerous, even more threatening and offensive? That’s important. In fact, Morales notes:

Legions of new IRS agents will be unleashed for invasive and time-consuming audits of middle class Americans and small businesses.   

As previously reported by CNBC, experts say a fattened-up IRS would go after small businesses that necessarily depend on cash transactions…

Related: Yellen: We Want IRS to Monitor Flow of Money In and Out of People’s Bank Accounts

And Morales correctly recalls the Obama Administration using the IRS as a weapon of what appeared to be political targeting and intimidation.

The last time the Democrats were in power, the IRS wrongly used its authority to target and harass taxpayers, especially conservative non-profits. Most notably, the Obama IRS was caught unfairly denying conservative groups non-profit status ahead of the 2012 election. Lois Lerner’s political beliefs led to tea party and conservative groups receiving disparate and unfair treatment when applying for non-profit status, according to a detailed report compiled by the Senate Finance Committee. Because of Lerner’s bias, only one conservative organization was granted tax exempt status over a period of more than three years.

This Democrat-pushed increase in IRS funding -- this push for metastatic growth of the  “enforcement” side, to have them bring in $400 billion more bucks – is a potentially bigger cudgel in the long, long beating the feds have inflicted on the economy and our rights.

They seize our cash and direct it towards politically-favored recipients we would not have chosen in a free market. They enslave us and threaten us and tell us they “serve” the people whom they attack.

Regardless of the amount, regardless of the balance of thugs versus smiling dons -- “the ratio” of those depicted as “enforcers” and those depicted as “helpers” – they help themselves to our substance, keep a lot of it, and hand the rest to their pals.

When we see this kind of Democrat proposal and we fight it, let’s hope we can stress to others that we fight the very concept of the tax – because that concept is fundamentally unjust.

donate