The GOP Votes to Defund White Collar Police

The GOP Cuts Funding to Catch White Collar Criminals

Jan 10, 2023

Pop Quiz: The Republicans have the gavel and control of the House and the first substantive bill that hits the floor and passes relates to:

A) Tax cuts

B) Cutting Social Security and Medicare

C) Hunter Biden’s laptop

D) Cutting funding to capture criminals

The answer of course is D. I totally get why you might’ve thought it was one of the others, since that’s all they seem to campaign on every year and their rhetoric is entirely focused on. However, the first bill they voted on was one that guts IRS funding for 87,000 IRS workers.

Now you may hate the IRS. Taxes!- Boooooooo!!!!! But the IRS fills an important need in our country. The IRS is responsible for collecting all revenues and auditing to make sure everyone pays their share based on the law. One of the primary way we catch criminals and penalize them is through the tax code; illegitimate gains have to be legitimized in some way (money laundering) or hidden (tax evasion) . The IRS audits people to make sure that what they are saying they are paying is in line with the truth.

This captures not just tax cheats but mob bosses, drug lords, and a host of other really bad people. That’s a good thing right? It also produces a paper trail that when someone is captured, authorities can see how money was moved around, who else was paid and how else may be involved in improper schemes.

During the housing collapse in 2008, Bernie Madoff ponzi scheme and the recent crypto bankruptcy of Sam Bankman-Fried, an ongoing refrain was “How did they get away with this for so long and why haven’t they gone to jail (yet)?” One of the reasons is that the IRS is already overburdened with the (lack of) resources they have and the incredibly antiquated computer system (going back to the 80s!!!) they use to track and monitor tax returns.

So the Biden Administration did something to strengthen and modernize the Internal Revenue Service, including the ability to hire and pay for 87,000 new workers. A number of these are to cover for a large number of IRS agents retiring in the coming few years. However, most are to help improve, speed up and monitor tax auditing. The GOP has specifically said these are all “IRS Agents”; its a fact that has been debunked repeatedly.

This has benefits beyond just checking for crime; it helps speed up your tax return processing and gets you your refund faster. Again, WHO WOULDN’T BE FOR THAT?

Well, apparently Republicans. The GOP continues to push the fallacy that the IRS is after YOU. Well, if you are a tax cheat or a criminal, yeah, they are after you as we all should be. But for the vast majority of middle and working class people out there, they aren’t after you for a number of reasons. Mostly, looking into your 1040EZ form to try and collect an extra $2 is nothing in comparison to taking down the Wall Street hedge financier covering up hundreds of millions of ill-gotten gains and hiding them in the Cayman Islands, Panama or the Bahamas. There’s a societal benefit to capturing the latter and not pursuing the former.

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But there was the GOP, on the first day of having the gavel, voting to axe 87,000 workers from the IRS. And what does this bill do financially? The Congressional Budget Office estimates it will add $114 Billion to the national debt.

Purple America @BadgerPoliGuy

CBO: GOP’s IRS bill will add $114B to deficit

thehill.comCBO: GOP’s IRS bill will add $114B to deficitThe Republican proposal to eliminate billions of dollars in IRS funding will pile more than $100 billion onto federal deficits, according to a new estimate from Congress’s official budget sco…

So to recap. The GOP:

Defunded the (white collar) police
Made it harder for people to receive their tax refunds
Are letting criminals get away with it scott-free
Added $114 Billion to the national debt

And what is the next thing they want to do?

Have a fight over the debt ceiling and potentially shut down government.

#GOPGovernance

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