GOP War on the IRS Costs U.S. Billions

By Jon Perr
CrooksandLiars

For any American concerned about the federal budget deficit, job one must be to collect all of the tax revenue owed to the United States Treasury. That's why supposed Republican deficit hawks simply aren't serious about the national debt. After all, a new report confirmed that steep GOP budget cuts at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) are hurting customer service, delaying refunds and costing Uncle Sam billions of dollars annually. Thanks to the never-ending Republican war on the IRS dating back to the late 1990's, tax evasion and cheating are now depriving the U.S. of $400 billion each year.

In April, Congressional Republicans extracted $600 million in cuts from the IRS in return for a spending deal with President Obama, reductions which at the time were forecast to cost the Treasury $4 billion in lost revenue. Now, the annual report to Congress from the National Taxpayer Advocate shows, "IRS is not adequately funded to serve taxpayers or collect revenue." As the AP explained:

The Internal Revenue Service can't keep up with surging tax cheating and isn't sufficiently collecting revenue or helping confused taxpayers because Congress isn't giving it enough money to do its job, a government watchdog said Wednesday...

Congress cut the IRS budget to $11.8 billion this year. That is $300 million less than last year and $1.5 billion below the request by President Barack Obama, who argued that boosting the agency's spending would fatten tax collections and provide better service to taxpayers.

(More here.)