April 4, 2023
Since we are right on the cusp of the tax filing deadline, let’s take a look at how Mr. Himes’ two recent votes are empowering the IRS. Much has been made of the House vote last summer (Himes in the affirmative) to increase IRS funding by some $80 billion over the next decade, thereby hiring an additional 87,000 employees (retirees over the period have not been projected).
While critics cry that they’ll virtually be a new agent for every neighborhood in the country, defenders of the appropriation offer only that we’ll be getting much better “service” from the IRS. Once Republicans got a chance to look inside the atrocious so-called Inflation Reduction Act (after it was passed), they uncovered and analyzed the allocation of funds.
The category “Taxpayer Services” was allocated $3.2 billion, a measly 4% of the total appropriation; while “Enforcement” was allocated $46 billion, or 58% of the total IRS appropriation! We can immediately see what the Democrats prioritize. When projected out and viewed annually, the allocation represents a doubling of the current Annual Enforcement budget of $5 billion.
The purpose of the Bill was to rescind the funding for another 50,000 auditors focused largely on the vast pool of middle-income taxpayers. If it really was for the top 1% of earners, they'd each get their own auditor! The Bill passed 221 vs. 210. Of course, this time Jim Himes voted Nay. He’s currently out tweeting his customary deceptive interference, speculating that there will be 5,000 retirements per year over the period, compensating for the alarming IRS workforce boost. Who knows - but the fact remains the intent and effect of the $80 billion appropriation is a doubling of the Annual IRS Enforcement budget!
Not wasting any time in illustrating and demonstrating their new-found Enforcement heft, the IRS jumped into action on March 9th. Independent journalist Matt Taibbi was testifying that day to a House Judiciary subcommittee on the ‘Weaponization of the Federal Government.’ His testimony stemmed from the recently released ‘Twitter files’ by Elon Musk’s office. Taibbi was decrying what he termed the “censorship-industrial complex,” where Twitter was acting “more like a partner to the government” in censoring both people and information of which the government disapproved.
That very day an IRS agent showed up unannounced at his home and left a note instructing him to call the IRS over a problem with his prior year tax return being properly ‘accepted’ by the online filing system. For this technical matter an agent was sent to his door – a use of a personal visit reported as extraordinary by those familiar with such protocols. The choice of that specific day was no coincidence, and in Taibbi’s view, amounted to intimidation because of his testimony. From this gambit, it certainly appears the IRS already has too many Enforcement Agents.
Jim Himes’ two votes, and his tweets since the Taibbi episode, clearly indicate he is fine with the politicization of one of the government agencies most-feared by his constituents. But it’s no matter to him – for his true constituency is the elite clique of federal bureaucratic leadership itself. Jim Himes does NOT represent us.
Jim Himes is NO Moderate
Please re-circulate this message to any and all who are interested.
Help is on the way,
Bob MacGuffie
Candidate for Congress
