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You are here: Home / Politics / Republican Venality / They’re So Open About It

They’re So Open About It

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Maybe it is from all the books I have read and movies I have seen, but I guess I feel like I have a hyper-nostalgic view of crooks and thieves. I thought they were cunning, and worked in the dark, and tried to hide what they were doing. But they aren’t. They’re just right out there in the open:

Conservative political groups are mobilizing against a key element of a bipartisan infrastructure deal, and their opposition could make it harder for the U.S. government to collect unpaid taxes.

Congressional Democrats and Republicans have agreed to increase funding for the Internal Revenue Service so that the agency can bring in more tax revenue, hoping the money can help pay down some of the infrastructure package’s expected price tag. The early contours of the infrastructure blueprint have won the White House’s support, but the IRS provision in particular is drawing opposition from well-funded conservative groups, which are strongly opposed to expanding the reach of a tax-collection agency that they long have alleged is politically motivated.

…

“Republicans are going to double the IRS budget? That’s crazy. There’s very strong opposition to this,” said Stephen Moore, a former outside economic adviser to Trump who is leading the effort. An op-ed on the measure that Moore wrote with Steve Forbes also has circulated in Congressional Republican offices.

There’s literally no subtlety anymore. Everything is just right out there in the open with them

Reader Interactions

27Comments

  2. 2.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    Dude, Trump started lying about the election being stolen *before the votes were even counted*. The states where he was ahead were fair, but the counting HAD TO STOP; the states where he was behind were already unfair and the counting HAD TO CONTINUE.

    When that’s the behavior of the party leader, subtlety is gone.

    I mean, yeah – it’s always stunning to see it happen, over and over, and how the Republican propagandists continue to play along, as if something reasonable, or even sensible, was going on. Still, Trump proved you don’t even *need* a fig leaf, and people will still rave about how beautiful the emperor’s clothing is, just to own the libs.

  3. 3.

    dmsilev

    My favorite bit from that article:

    “Enforcement of tax laws is one thing, but what people are concerned about is aggressive audits,” said Jason Pye, a federal lobbyist formerly at FreedomWorks, a conservative organization

    Personally, I’m very concerned that there aren’t enough aggressive audits of rich tax-evaders.

  5. 5.

    Mike in DC

    Wait until after the first time Texas flips in a presidential election and you’re going to see what remains of subtlety go completely out the window.

  6. 6.

    Urza

    We should fund the IRS well enough to audit every billionaire that pays taxes to America every year.  Likely find enough to pay for the auditor just in honest unintentional mistakes, let alone what they try to hide.

  7. 7.

    Cacti

    Republicans have essentially abandoned democratic norms that existed pre-2016, and are a full-on neo-fascist movement.

    Yet, we still have feckless toads like Manchin and Sinema who think there’s a middle ground to be found with fascists.

  9. 9.

    Ken B

    Personally, I’ve liked the idea of tax bounties for a while now.

    Produce solid evidence of illegal tax evasion that stands up in court, testify if needed, and get 10 or 15% of the recovered money.

    It would give the IRS lots of material to work with, raise lots of money, and make it harder for the rich to cheat on their taxes. Especially since they can’t trust their hired help not to roll on them.

    Because, let’s face it, a lot of these rich people ain’t too bright.

    I’m sure there’s all sorts of legal problems with the idea, and no way Roberts and his reactionary wrecking crew would sign off on it, even if it was entirely legal and constitutional. But it’s a nice dream.

  10. 10.

    Hungry Joe

    @LongHairedWeirdo: In 2016 Trump was also claiming the election was rigged … until he won the electoral vote, and the election. Then, all of a sudden, it wasn’t rigged. Except for the popular vote — which he lost. That was still rigged.

  11. 11.

    Kay

    But this is what happens, right? They’re emboldened because they haven’t suffered any consequences. Until they do they’ll get worse. They test the barriers, nothing happens, so they knock that one down and go to the next.
    I’m just surprised they didn’t create a fake IRS scandal like last time. They don’t even bother now.
    How this ends is widespread noncompliance with paying taxes. It’s all fun and games until 100 million people decide if these people don’t have to pay they shouldn’t have to either. It’s happened other places and it will happen here.

  12. 12.

    James E Powell

    @Kay:

    But this is what happens, right? They’re emboldened because they haven’t suffered any consequences. Until they do they’ll get worse.

    Exactly. A steady & persistent progression of right-wing bullshit from Reagan to now.

    40 years of the press/media refusing to contest it & at times joining in promoting it. 40 years of Democratic leadership deciding not to confront them head on. They are liars. They are corrupt. They are evil. Say it and explain your answers. No backtracking on deplorables when they are in fact deplorables.

    NB – This is me venting, not advising.

  13. 13.

    Kay

    @James E Powell:

    @NikkiMcR

    It took less than 24 hours for a right wing talking head to make the jump from “we need cameras in every classroom to stop CRT” to “teachers who don’t want cameras in classrooms might be sexually abusing your kids”

     

    They also have a “defund public education” hashtag, so I think we’re finally getting to the objective of this panic.

  14. 14.

    Ruckus

    There is nothing subtle about current day conservatives.

    Nothing.

    They shot subtle out into space when they elected SFB for president, it’s half way to the sun now.

    And the sun is pissed, why do you think it’s so hot?

  15. 15.

    Kay

    Too, the IRS testimony was essentially “we’re missing a trillion dollars because we don’t have people to enforce”, which really tells tax cheats they’re probably going to get away with it.

    -The U.S. government is losing some $1 trillion in unpaid taxes every year and needs more and consistent Internal Revenue Service funding to go after tax cheats, IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig said on Tuesday.

  16. 16.

    Ruckus

    @JoyceH:

    “But but but but… if the IRS is well-funded, they might catch us cheating!”

    “But but but but… if the IRS is well-funded, they will catch us cheating!

    FIXIT for you.

  17. 17.

    Yutsano

    I mean…I knew this was coming. After they got the scalp of Lois Lerner they knew they could bend the IRS until it broke. Then the budget deal for fiscal year 2021 got approved and my agency FINALLY started to get some decent resources. Collections went up. Funny how investing in something that nets you $4-6* for every dollar spent nets you money.

    @Kay: How this ends is widespread noncompliance with paying taxes.

    In some ways this is already happening. Businesses pay fines for non-submisson of W-2s and 1099-NEC but the fine for the 1099s is capped. And I have seen businesses blatantly flout those rules. How much does anyone want to bet Über and Lyft break these rules constantly? It’s no wonder they fought so hard for the contractor law in California. They get to make a mint not paying Social Security and Medicare taxes for their “contractors” while the little guys end up with huge tax bills.  There’s a reason why I hate most of these dudebro contractor gigs. It’s a great way to get away with massive profits while fucking over your underlings.

    (Forgot my asterisk)

    *I’ve heard different numbers as the ratio. I just know it’s a lot.

  18. 18.

    Steeplejack

    I will repeat my brother’s proposal that the IRS should have small privateer crews that are issued letters of marque to go after the big tax cheats and get a bounty on whatever they recoup. Perhaps sort of like Monty Python’s Crimson Permanent Assurance. Maybe give them a base salary or a grubstake to get started.

  19. 19.

    Kay

    @Yutsano:

    These declines are huge: 

    As of last year, the IRS had 9,510 auditors. That’s down a third from 2010. The last time the IRS had fewer than 10,000 revenue agents was 1953, when the economy was a seventh of its current size. And the IRS is still shrinking. Almost a third of its remaining employees will be eligible to retire in the next year, and with morale plummeting, many of them will.The IRS conducted 675,000 fewer audits in 2017 than it did in 2010, a drop in the audit rate of 42 percent. But even those stark numbers don’t tell the whole story, say current and former IRS employees: Auditors are stretched thin, and they’re often forced to limit their investigations and move on to the next audit as quickly as they can.
    Without enough staff, the IRS has slashed even basic functions. It has drastically pulled back from pursuing people who don’t bother filing their tax returns. New investigations of “nonfilers,” as they’re called, dropped from 2.4 million in 2011 to 362,000 last year. According to the inspector general for the IRS, the reduction results in at least $3 billion in lost revenue each year. Meanwhile, collections from people who do file but don’t pay have plummeted. Tax obligations expire after 10 years if the IRS doesn’t pursue them. Such expirations were relatively infrequent before the budget cuts began. In 2010, $482 million in tax debts lapsed. By 2017, according to internal IRS collection reports, that figure had risen to $8.3 billion, 17 times as much as in 2010. The IRS’ ability to investigate criminals has atrophied as well.

  20. 20.

    frosty

    @Kay: ​
      Well, now I’m pissed off. I file every year, it’s a pain in the ass. I pay taxes every year. If the IRS can’t even track down non-filers and non-payers, then fuck it, why should I file?
    You’re right, Kay, this had better get fixed fast.

  21. 21.

    Brachiator

    the IRS provision in particular is drawing opposition from well-funded conservative groups, which are strongly opposed to expanding the reach of a tax-collection agency that they long have alleged is politically motivated.

    What a hoot. “Politically motivated.” I have been in the tax industry for quite a while. Never seen a tax form that asks for your party affiliation.

    Biden should just ask a town hall meeting of average citizens, “Do you want lower taxes? How about we go after the biggest tax evaders and cheats?”

  22. 22.

    Kay

    @frosty:

    2017, IRS speaking to Congress:

    Koskinen replied with a speech he’d given many times before and would give again. A collapse in tax compliance was really possible, he said. People will catch on. He worried about the U.S. becoming Italy or Greece. “What I don’t want to do is have somebody later on say, ‘You never warned us,’” he told Congress. “This is your warning.”

  23. 23.

    Brachiator

    @Yutsano:

    How much does anyone want to bet Über and Lyft break these rules constantly?

    These companies are pretty good about Forms 1099-NEC, mainly because of necessary scrutiny by various agencies. And some people want to be freelancers. We need good controls, but we also need a flexible approach to the gig economy as we come out of the pandemic.

    And yeah more money for IRS enforcement. I have seen small and medium size businesses give people who are obviously employees a Form 1099-NEC. Then these businesses shut down, get a new EIN number and open up again and resume exploiting their employees.

    It’s a racket.

  26. 26.

    lowtechcyclist

    Maybe it is from all the books I have read and movies I have seen, but I guess I feel like I have a hyper-nostalgic view of crooks and thieves. I thought they were cunning, and worked in the dark, and tried to hide what they were doing. But they aren’t.

    Speaking of crooks in general, rather than this particular class of crook: ~20 years ago, I was among those selected to serve on a local grand jury.  Can’t remember details after this much time, but my big takeaway from the experience was how stupid the average crook was.

    Seriously, your average local crook is a guy who’s just plain too dumb to make an honest living, who doesn’t have the brain cells for even the ‘weak mind’ part of a ‘strong back, weak mind’ job.

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