In its infinite wisdom – or lack thereof – Congress recently gave the U.S. Internal Revenue Service $80 billion in new funding as part of the Inflation Reduction Act before the agency had a plan for spending it.
It’s typical for Washington to do things that way – provide the funding first, figure out how to spend it second. That’s not in the American taxpayers’ interest but it works for the bureaucrats. Giving the IRS more money without specifying how it will be spent is akin to giving more power to a megalomaniac. The odds it will be abused are not just high, but near certainty.
IRS chief Danny Werfel, who appeared recently before the House Committee on Ways and Means, said nothing to put anyone at ease. Taxpayers fear his agency, and rightly so. It has immense power it uses ruthlessly. Ask any honest, blameless taxpayer who’s gotten a dunning letter whether their first thought was to fight or pay up.
