Noah Rothman:
Late Tuesday night, the House of Representatives voted to cut 13 percent from the Internal Revenue Service’s budget. Two proposals submitted by Republican legislators in the House were quickly passed by voice vote, resulting in a cut of $1.14 billion from the tax collection agency’s enforcement budget.
“The changes would leave the IRS with a budget of $9.8 billion for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1, 13 percent below this year’s funding level and 21 percent below the administration’s request,” Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday.
The Associated Press attributed the move to cut the IRS’s enforcement budget to “GOP outrage over the agency’s scrutiny of tea party groups.”
“The use of a government agency to harass, target, intimidate and threaten lawful, honest citizens was the worst form of authoritarianism,” said Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., author of an amendment to cut the IRS tax enforcement budget by $353 million. Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., followed up with an amendment to cut $788 million more.
President Barack Obama has vowed to veto the measures if they passed the Senate, which is itself an unlikely prospect.
Democrats are incensed over the move to hobble the IRS. “Administration officials have said that additional enforcement spending yields a return of as much as $6 for every dollar spent,” the Bloomberg report noted. But not every dollar spent by the IRS is directed toward tax collection.
A report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration released in April revealed that, between October 2010 and December 2012, the IRS paid out $2.8 million in bonuses to employees cited in what often amount to criminal offenses.
The offenses that bonus recipients committed, The Washington Post reported, include “drug use, making violent threats, fraudulently claiming unemployment benefits, misusing government credit cards and — get this — failing to pay their taxes.”
If Obama vetoes it, or, more likely, Reid never lets it get out of the Senate, how will IRS be funded even at $1/year?
The HOUSE holds the federal purse strings.
Not the Senate.
Not the Executive branch.
Not the Judiciary.
@Nanny G:
Unless Obama decides to act unilaterally
@DrJohn:
What can he do?
He can (within the federal bureaucracy) rob Peter to pay Paul.
But Peter will be livid!
Hey, now maybe now the IRS can upgrade their office computers.
The U.S. House of Representatives is in the hands of complete idiots.
@Nanny G: He can direct the Treasury to pay. Maybe he can print his own money. Maybe be he can have Lois Lerner penalize all conservatives to pay for the IRS budget.
They should have cut the whole 9.8 billion. Fire everyone who doesn’t cooperate in an investigation and start with a new agency. Political hacks and operatives have no business with this kind of power. Phuck the IRS.
@Greg: greggie want a cracker awwk awwwk
I am sure Harry will not let this be voted on, but I am very glad the GOP is doing something. I hope the GOP doesn’t wimp out as usual. The IRS is a very out of control agency.
SO WHAT’S THE USE OF DOING SOMETHING THEY KNOW WON’T PASS GO,
GET RID OF THE UNIONS, IN ALL FLOORS OF GOVERNMENT THAT WILL HURT MORE,
FIRE ALL WHO HAVE THEIR LAPTOP SHUT DOWN,
TIME IS PRECIOUS, ARE THEY TRYING TO DELAY THE PUNISHMENT, BECAUSE THEY ARE SCARE TO
MESS UP THE ELECTION,
ONE THING AT THE TIME, THE REST WILL FALL INTO PLACE,IN DUE TIME,
THEY ARE ELECTED FOR ACTIONS FOLLOWING WORDS,
NOT ONLY WORDS, which are cheap,
if not followed by actions,
@Greg:
The IRS was so awash in surplus funds that it was buying office furniture and artworks (rather than computer upgrades) to keep from losing the money they haven’t spent. I hope you pay better attention when you drive a car.