By ELIZABETH KRUCK | Genoa
It is absurd that the U.S. House Republican majority chose cutting the IRS as its No. 1 priority and first order of business, as if cutting the IRS reduces spending and government. The IRS is a financial generating agency charged with collecting and enforcing the tax code. Cutting funds to run the agency, as the Republicans have done over the last two decades, has left the agency with less staff and outdated systems as the population has grown and as corporations and wealthy tax returns have grown more complicated. The former IRS Commissioner, Charles Rettig, said that the number of full-time employees is now close to 1974 levels. Is it any wonder that average taxpayers have experienced long wait times when contacting the IRS?
The spenders are the House of Representatives, not the IRS. For every dollar spent on the IRS, at least $5 are generated. Cutting the IRS will actually increase the deficit rather than reduce it, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Cutting the IRS benefits only the tax cheats, the wealthy and corporations who don’t want their tax returns audited.
