President Joe Biden and Democrats who support his multi-trillion dollar "Build Back Better" spending agenda want to empower the IRS with even more resources.
According to the Heritage Foundation, the bill would increase the IRS budget by 70 percent.
"House Democrats’ massive tax-and-spending package would reward the unpopular tax-collecting agency by increasing its current budget by more than 70%. Over the next 10 years, the bill would add $88 billion of new funding for the IRS, including $45 billion dedicated to enforcement, $27 billion for operations support, $5 billion for new business systems, $4 billion to administer green energy initiatives, and $4 billion to administer child tax credits," Heritage analyzes. "Meanwhile, it dedicates less than $2 billion for taxpayer services."
"Between the huge sums aimed directly at enforcement activities and operations support, expect a large majority of the $88 billion of new IRS funding to directly or indirectly support things like asset monitoring, audits, taxpayer investigations, and legal actions against taxpayers," they continue.
"On the issue of enforcement actives and operations support," Americans for Tax Reform is reminding taxpayers the IRS already has substantial authority and power. This includes ownership of thousands of guns and agents who can be deployed to use them.
The IRS has stockpiled 4,600 guns and five million rounds of ammunition as of Jan. 1, 2019 according to a report from OpenTheBooks published in 2020.
An OpenTheBooks report titled The Militarization of U.S. Executive Agencies shows that, even without the proposed $80 billion increase in funding, the IRS Criminal Investigation Division (IRS-CI) is already heavily armed at the expense of the American taxpayer. How much larger will this unchecked arsenal get if the agency gets more funding?
The current 4,600-gun stockpile includes 621 shotguns, 539 long-barrel rifles, and 15 submachine guns.
According to the Government Accountability Office the ammunition breakdown is as follows:
Pistol and revolver rounds: 3,151,500
Rifle rounds: 1,472,050
Shotgun rounds: 367,750
Fully automatic firearm rounds: 56,000
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Given the pricetag and coming cost analysis from the Congressional Budget Office, the future of Build Back Better is in doubt.
"The WH has begun bracing lawmakers for a disappointing estimate from the CBO, which is likely to find that the cost of the BBB will not be fully paid for with new tax revenue over the coming decade." @arappeport https://t.co/JoDEx6DZ8g
— Trip Gabriel (@tripgabriel) November 15, 2021
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