Republican Outrage

Today’s Republican Outrage is, of course, poor, poor pitiful Donald J. Trump “under siege” by Department of Justice thugs at Mar-a-Lago even though he is not there. According to Fox News, Pearl Harbor and 9/11 are small potatoes compared to this blot against all that is America.

Yesterday’s Republican Outrage was that $80 billion was included in the Deficit Reduction Act that will allow the IRS to modernize its operations and to hire 87,000 new workers. The Republican National Committee warned that the bill “will send an army of IRS enforcers after Grandma!” Ted Cruz warned that these agents “will target Americans with 1.2 million new audits.” Senator Mike Crapo (what a great name) noted, “The Dems claim that this will allow the IRS to go after millionaires, billionaires and other so-called “tax cheats”, but the reality is that they will mostly go after taxpayers with incomes below $400K.”

Two thoughts come to mind:

1. Donald Trump paid $750 in income tax for two consecutive years while he was President. Ed Dufton paid about $20 K in income tax during each of the same two years. I’m not afraid of being audited by that “army of IRS enforcers”. Donald Trump should be very afraid.

2. The IRS is hopelessly understaffed and in drastic need of modernization. A Washington Post article showed literal mountains of unprocessed tax returns piled on cafeteria tables in IRS offices. The IRS runs on Windows 95 which was not only unreliable to begin with but is not longer supported by Microsoft.

Two years ago, we withdrew from a retirement account and carefully ensured that income tax withholding was included. We received a Form 1099 verifying the withholding. Someone at the IRS misread our return. We received a nastygram informing us that we owed the exact amount of the withholding ($1,250) and that if we didn’t pay up, a lien would be placed on 10 Beaver Lane. They couldn’t garnish our wages since we are retired and legally, they can’t go after Social Security.

First, I tried to call the 800 number from the nastygram. “Our agents are assisting other clients. All lines are busy. If you have supporting documentation for your claim, mail it (via registered mail) to the designated address.” Cool. I have the documentation. I mailed it the same day.

Apparently, my registered letter joined several thousand others on a cafeteria table at IRS — Austin, TX. A second nastygram threatening a lien on the house ensued. It took more than a year before it was straightened out. Not once was I able to get through to a live human being at IRS to explain the problem.

Republican Outrage over funding the IRS overlooks the fact that maybe they will answer their damn phones now.