GOP Putting Lives At Risk With Latest IRS Conspiracy Theory

NBC News' Ben Collins discusses the origins of the latest Republican conspiracy theory about a militarized IRS and its impact on the party and country.

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GOP Putting Lives At Risk With Latest IRS Conspiracy Theory

[minello]

The IRS recruitment of 87000 is frightening the rich and powerful who don't pay their Taxes, so the irresponsible rhetoric coming from those Republican politicians protecting their rich doners

[itsjustmeagain]

Since GOP hates gov't so much, we should oblige them and send them home. Remember when trump called him "Lyin' Ted Cruz"? He was right.

[carolynablett]

"A people that elect corrupt politicians, imposters, thieves and traitors are not victims, but accomplices." ~ George Orwell

[jamesfowler]

Interesting, ….31 years as a police officer and I’ve never run into an IRS agent in the field, yet alone an armed one. Never was I aware of an IRS driven search warrant, or any enforcement action by that agency. They may have an armed law enforcement contingent but they aren’t prolific at all.
This is debasement at its worst.

These are Harvard trained individuals who have lost their moral compass. I feel for the Republican Party.

[imisstoronto]

You can almost see the GOP leadership listing their essential talking points of the week. It always seems to be foment, anger, destroy and rile up. Why don't they do something positive for a change?

[sarahhopkinsluvscats]

This is insane. The IRS can barely function. I've had several dealings with them over the years. Until Trump years, they were easy to reach on the phone and you could fix things right then. This year, I left on thing out of my taxes from a couple of years ago. I didn't find out about it until last Fall. It was one form that said that a tax had been paid. I sent it in, was threatened with tax court and got several letters saying that they did not have time to review my claim. Finally, at the last minute, I get a letter that says that the issue is closed. All this for something that a few years ago would have been fixed with a 5 minute phone call. This is because they don't have the staff to cope with all that they have to do because the Trumpies cut them back so that THEY would not be audited. Stoopid!

[kwaishiu]

Aren't these freaking congress women and men and senators public servants themselves, talking about hypocrisy, please hold them accountable for inciting violence

[johnnydavisson]

Congress intentionally stoking public violence needs an immediate response from the justice department. These people need to be taken off their particular platform and placed in a padded room.

[elpatudo]

"One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back." -Carl Sagan

[angle]

Lines were drawn A LONG time ago. Let them keep talking. He actually said AK-15. He mixed the AK with an AR and built a hybrid weapon an AK-15 in his head. The notion that the IRS agents are going to be coming to your house in a tie with an AK attached to their side seems to be a bit of a stretch, hilarious. I know someone who works for the IRS, trust me, they aren't MIB.

[justinstephenson]

Fact: In the US tax gap (the difference between what tax is actually collected and what is due) is roughly 3x larger than in most mature democracies. Partly that is down to the hopelessly convoluted and illogical US tax code but mostly it is down to the GOP deliberately underfunding the IRS to allow their rich donors to avoid paying tax.

If there are an additional 87, 000 IRS employees hired that will bring the total up to 160, 000 which is less than 1 IRS employee for every 2000 US citizens (currently 1 IRS employee for every 4300 people). In the UK it is 1 HMRC employee for every 1000 people.

The reality is that currently the IRS is so underfunded that there are only a few more IRS employees to deal with 330 million US citizens than there are HMRC employees in the UK to deal with 66 million people.

[brucesteinkamp]

Can't people realize it would cost the IRS more to come after someone who makes less than 150k than the money they would get.

[lw]

Wasn't Grassley the guy poised to preside over the "counting" of the electoral votes on the senate floor after Pence had his unfortunate incident on Jan 6? What is he trying to deflect from?

[Iseerightthruyou]

Normal operating staff for the IRS is 100, 000 employees. Due to cuts in funding by Republicans, and COVID, the IRS has been operating with a staff of 78, 000 for a long time. Now 50% of the 78, 000 is due to retire. So this bill is to replenish a severely short staffed IRS, and yes crack down on people who don't pay their taxes. That's their job.

[ksyrahsyrah]

As an Iowa constituent, I dropped ol’ Chuck a strongly worded email. FREEDOM OF SPEECH STOPS when your words endanger others!

[richard]

I just dealt with a guy who was spouting the very same nonsense.
People who run a clean business have nothing to worry about.

[carmencastillo]

There should be a law that should make these people creating lies accountable..

[bunbwre]

The insanity in America is jaw dropping.

[jenansbro]

Can't believe these people are in any kind of office, you know I thought I wouldn't be alive when the times hit, and here I am

[lisabrown]

The 87, 000 figure appears to come from a report the Treasury
Department published in May 2021, which outlined the impact of tax
compliance measures in the Biden administration's American
Families Plan proposal. The report estimated that the IRS could hire
86, 852 employees by 2031 with nearly $80 billion in additional
funding.
New funding would also be used to hire other types of employees,
such as customer service representatives and IT specialists, and not
just new auditors.
Americans have been complaining about the understaffed IRS
forever. By replenishing staff and upgrading their tech, it should
make our IRS experience so much easier to navigate. It is intended to benefit US Citizens, not hurt them.