{"id":1175996,"date":"2023-08-10T14:24:53","date_gmt":"2023-08-10T14:24:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dissidentvoice.org\/?p=143001"},"modified":"2023-08-10T14:24:53","modified_gmt":"2023-08-10T14:24:53","slug":"foolishness-hypocrisy-the-gop-and-the-irs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/08\/10\/foolishness-hypocrisy-the-gop-and-the-irs\/","title":{"rendered":"Foolishness, Hypocrisy, the GOP and the IRS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Take your pick from two definitions of modern-day Republicans: foolish hypocrites or hypocritical fools. When it comes to America\u2019s $32 trillion<\/a> federal deficit, each one is as fitting as the other. They\u2019re hypocrites for saying one thing and doing another. They\u2019re fools because the actions they take are driving the deficit ever higher.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s listen to the words Republicans mouth. Let\u2019s look at the laws they pass and propose. Let\u2019s zero in on their special ways of spending\u2014and spurning\u2014tax dollars.<\/p>\n

Off we go, into a world of debt created by the party that claims to be concerned about debt.<\/p>\n

Just a couple months back, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and the GOP created a debt ceiling crisis. McCarthy and President Biden ultimately forged an agreement to avoid a U.S. default, but it didn\u2019t impress Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis. \u201cAfter this deal,\u201d DeSantis warned<\/a>, \u201cour country will still be careening toward bankruptcy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not two weeks later, the GOP-led House was doing everything it could to turn DeSantis into a prophet. With classic hypocrisy, it \u201creleased a plan<\/a> that would slash taxes for corporations<\/a> and the wealthy\u201d and cost the government $240 billion over the next decade. With classic foolishness, it went all out to cut double-digit billions from Biden\u2019s long-term funding for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Altogether, via three<\/a> separate cuts, the GOP proposed slashing more than $21 billion from the IRS allocation.<\/p>\n

Surprise, surprise: Short-changing America\u2019s tax collection agency won\u2019t save a penny. In fact, it\u2019ll likely cost<\/u> about $120 billion.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s simple arithmetic: In fiscal 2022<\/a>, \u201cthe IRS collected $72.4 billion through enforcement programs, a return on investment (ROI) of about $6 to $1.\u201d The real ROI is almost certain to be greater, since the $6 to $1 ratio doesn\u2019t include the deterrence effect\u2014the additional billions that come in because audit-fearing taxpayers file more honest returns.<\/p>\n

Republicans actually delight in starving the IRS. Here\u2019s Rep. Dave Joyce<\/a>, an Ohio representative, making GOP happy talk a while back: \u201cI know that when we were in the majority [from 2010 \u2013 2018]\u2026we took great pleasure in cutting the amount of money that was going to the IRS every year.\u201d<\/p>\n

They\u2019re in the majority again, taking great pleasure again, and their foolishness has become more costly than ever. A new paper<\/a> by tax experts and former Treasury officials Natasha Sarin and Mark J. Mazur addressed the ever-higher costs and what keeps pushing them up.<\/p>\n

As the authors point out, \u201cabout 15% of the taxes that are owed are not voluntarily remitted and ultimately not collected.\u201d That\u2019s led to an annual tax gap of $600 billion\u2014a gap that directly reflects the gutting of IRS budgets. Audit<\/a> rates have been declining every year since 2010, the agency is operating with 22 percent fewer people, and it\u2019s been forced to stick with outmoded systems and equipment.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s plain common sense that more money for the IRS can cut that $600 billion gap. It\u2019s especially true when the audits focus on high-income taxpayers.<\/p>\n

The agency\u2019s return of $6 for every $1 spent, cited earlier, was an overall figure. According to a study published just last month, \u201can additional $1 spent auditing taxpayers above the 90th<\/sup> percentile [i.e., the top 10 percent] yields more than $12 in revenue.\u201d Audits of high-income taxpayers do cost more money, \u201cbut the additional revenue more than offsets the costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 12:1 return includes the deterrence effect, and it\u2019s humongous: deterrence raises an estimated three times as much revenue from high-income taxpayers as the initial audits.<\/p>\n

Getting back to the federal deficit, the GOP is far from alone in its hawkishness. The latest long-term projections<\/a> from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) \u201creveal deep structural problems\u2026 that will keep the debt on an unsustainable path and diminish the opportunities and choices of future generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Republicans, though, are in a class all by themselves at minimizing federal revenues. They expand the deficit by penny-pinching the IRS. They cost the Treasury trillions<\/a> with tax cuts for people who don\u2019t need them. They resist and vote down every Democratic<\/a> effort to make the rich pay \u201ctheir fair share\u201d.<\/p>\n

All of which makes them hypocritical fools or foolish hypocrites: take your pick.<\/p>\n

Addendum<\/strong>: Newly-released figures underscore the folly of playing politics with IRS budgets. The agency collected<\/a> $38 million in unpaid taxes from certain high-income taxpayers in the past few months, an average of roughly $215,000 per case. The revenue came in through an initiative paid for with the first infusion of new agency funding. \u201cIt just shows you,\u201d said IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel, \u201chow much money is out there in delinquent taxes.\u201d<\/p>\n

This post was originally published on Dissident Voice<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Take your pick from two definitions of modern-day Republicans: foolish hypocrites or hypocritical fools. When it comes to America\u2019s $32 trillion federal deficit, each one is as fitting as the other. They\u2019re hypocrites for saying one thing and doing another. They\u2019re fools because the actions they take are driving the deficit ever higher. Let\u2019s listen [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":407,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[724,19111,276,5126],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1175996"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/407"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1175996"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1175996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1175997,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1175996\/revisions\/1175997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1175996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1175996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1175996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}