The Inflation Reduction Act, which was recently passed in the Senate, would drastically increase the budget and size of the IRS. Here are three reasons why the IRS should be abolished.
The IRS Has a History of Targeting Conservative Groups
One of the biggest IRS scandals in recent history took place when Tea Party conservative groups were targeted when applying for tax-exempt status under Lois Lerner while she was the IRS senior executive.
As a result, the IRS faced numerous lawsuits and ended up settling with hundreds of Tea Party organizations for $3.5 million.
While the IRS apologized for its actions, an apology cannot fix a bureaucracy that is broken with this amount of scandal and corruption.
Not only did Tea Party groups face this treatment, but House Democrats are now asking the IRS to target some conservative faith-based organizations such as the Family Research Council.
On Aug. 1, 40 Democrats sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig objecting to the FRC’s tax-exempt status.
The IRS Is Growing Too Big
The Inflation Reduction Act would add $80 billion in funding to the IRS — increasing its budget by over 600 percent — and up to 87,000 new employees, which would result in the IRS becoming one of the largest federal agencies.
Should the IRS be abolished?
To give perspective, The Washington Free Beacon found that the Pentagon has about 27,000 employees, the State Department 77,243, the FBI about 35,000 and Customs and Border Protection 19,536 border agents.
Democrats like Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. admit that the Inflation Reduction Act would give “big money” to the IRS and claim that the purpose is to go after “rich tax cheats.”
Our Inflation Reduction Act includes big money for the IRS to go after rich tax cheats after years of republican sabotage. Pres Biden should fire trump’s failed IRS boss so we make sure this money is used right. https://t.co/cCkCYqcutb
— Bill Pascrell, Jr. ???? (@BillPascrell) August 5, 2022
However, this could be used as a political weapon against their opponents, and we will potentially see conservative groups being targeted like they were under the Obama administration on a much bigger scale.
The IRS Is Being Armed with Ammunition
Many conservative journalists, including Tucker Carlson of Fox News, have reported on the IRS possessing millions of rounds of ammo.
“In 2018, the government accountability office reported that more than 2,000 IRS enforcement agents have more than 4,000 weapons,” Carlson said.
“The IRS is also stockpiling more than 5 million rounds of ammunition. In 2020, the Washington organization openthebooks.com reported the IRS has spent more than $20 million on guns and ammo between 2006 and 2019.”
Many Republicans have expressed concerns about this, including Rep. Lauren Boebert, who tweeted that the IRS bought $700,000 worth of ammunition this year.
The Internal Revenue Service bought nearly $700K in ammunition earlier this year which begs the questions, why do their agents need guns to do their job and who are the IRS arming their agents against?
— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) August 3, 2022
Calls for reforming or auditing the IRS are a step in the right direction, but they are not nearly enough. The only solution at this point is to eliminate the IRS altogether.
Sen. Ted Cruz has called for the IRS to be abolished for years, and he included it in the platform of his 2016 presidential campaign.
He has renewed his calls in response to the Inflation Reduction Act.
Abolish the IRS! pic.twitter.com/IpSXYDlRVN
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) August 1, 2022
A common question arises. What would replace the IRS if it were abolished? The answer is simply nothing.
Not only should Americans pay no income taxes, but we shouldn’t have a corrupt federal agency like the IRS wasting our taxpayer dollars.
Hopefully one day, Congress will have enough common sense to abolish the IRS for good.
The views expressed in this opinion article are those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by the owners of this website. If you are interested in contributing an Op-Ed to The Western Journal, you can learn about our submission guidelines and process here.
