What Could Congress Do Instead of Doubling IRS Agents?
It's not hard to figure out where $80 billion over the next ten years could have made America safer and stronger, home and abroad. And even curb inflation.
Pretend you’re a US Senator and presented with this choice: You have $80 billion to “invest” to bolster recruitment and staffing in one of these public-funded institutions. You can choose one or two out of three (yes, I know there is a fourth choice. Play along):
A. Give it all to the Internal Revenue Service to hire 87,000 new agents, with 45,000 of them tasked with extracting $200 billion by doubling the number of audits of middle-class Americans;
B. Bolster recruitment of increasingly decimated regular Army and Army National Guard units and other branches to meet a need for 150,000 new personnel; and/or
C. Help communities replace retiring or resigning police officers. Communities have seen an increase of 45 percent in retirements and 20 percent in resignations in 2021 compared to 2020.
Not hard, right? Who wants more IRS officers holding you upside down to shake coins out of your pocket when you have other, more urgent needs to fill?
All fifty Democrats in the United States Senate, President Joe Biden, and Vice President Kamala Harris (who cast the tie-breaking vote Sunday for the misbranded “Inflation Reduction Act”), that’s who. And, most likely, every Democrat in the House will join them Friday. Biden will be woken up from his nap and handed a pen to sign the bill as it reaches his desk or bedside.
You think that when demands on our military are only increasing in hotspots worldwide, whether fighting al Qaeda and its affiliates in the Middle East or Africa, meeting NATO obligations in eastern Europe, or being prepared to respond to the Asian tinderboxes, the Senate might prioritize our military. You would be wrong.
(In fairness, it might be uncertain whether increased military spending qualifies for a budget reconciliation bill. But that’s not the point. It’s obvious that Congress can find other ways to spend money This is about priorities.)
Or, with major crime spiking in so many of our major cities, from Los Angeles to Richmond? Especially in cities like Philadelphia, San Francisco, and even my own Arlington, Virginia, with George Soros-funded prosecutors who are more interested in keeping criminals out of jails instead of pursuing justice for victims. Wrong again. God bless the people of Florida for giving their Governor the power to suspend incompetent or bad prosecutors who won’t do their job. I bet a few other state legislatures will be looking at similar laws.
Of course, the military’s recruiting woes are not entirely due to a lack of funds. We are arguably overstretching our overseas commitments and disrupting lives, especially of National Guardsman who leave families, jobs, and universities for 9 months or longer commitments. Disclosure: I am the father of one such Army National Guardsman.
The pool of those eligible to join the military continues to shrink, with more young men and women than ever disqualified for obesity, drug use or criminal records. Last month, Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville testified before Congress that only 23% of Americans ages 17-24 are qualified to serve without a waiver to join, down from 29% in recent years.
An internal Defense Department survey obtained by NBC News found that only 9% of those young Americans eligible to serve in the military had any inclination to do so, the lowest number since 2007.
This, despite signing bonuses of at least $20,000 for qualified recruits. The issue of overweight and obese recruits has plagued the military for over a decade.
And then there’s the military brass’s increasing wokeness, not to mention the government’s vaccine mandates for therapeutics that increasingly neither prevent infection nor spread or worse.
Police resignations and retirements are a bit more straightforward. The “defund the police” movement began in Minneapolis in 2020 with the “George Floyd riots.” Some of those cities that defunded their police reversed course. Couple that with those Soros-funded prosecutors, and you have a recipe for disasters that continue to unfold before our eyes.
Tragically, Democratic US Senators, including my own, Tim Kaine (up for reelection in 2024) and Mark Warner (just reelected to a six-year term in 2020) - neither of whom has any meaningful military or law enforcement experience or background - chose the IRS over our military or struggling police forces - even in their own backyard. And if you have a Democratic US Senator, yours is right there with them. Sordid company, indeed.
Of course, another course of action is not spending the money at all.
After all, The Biden and Democratic “American Rescue Plan” (more misbranding) pumped another $2 trillion into an economy that already was threatened by the previous $5 trillion spent during the pandemic. Between the so-called “infrastructure” bill and the IRS Expansion Act (more accurate than the “Inflation Reduction Act”), another $1.5 trillion is now being added to the money supply. Do you think prices are going up now? Fortunately, Congress may have the chance to “unspend” much of this money if they are in control come January. Unfortunately, Joe Biden will likely be president for another two years. He can veto whatever Congress sends him.
Remember this when you vote in about 10 weeks and again in 2024. Hold them accountable. Your neighborhood, national security, and pocketbook depend on it.