Funding the IRS

The IRS is an easy whipping post, an organization that most people simply don’t like – and that is because the IRS’ job is to enforce the collection of taxes. Let’s accept for the moment that like it or not, that really is an important function in this country – simply put, very little would run without the support of taxation.

From my experience, most of us don’t object to taxation per se, but object more to various unfair elements of same, and sometimes the absurdity and unreasonableness of how the IRS (to say nothing of various State tax collection organizations) operates. Frankly, the IRS could (and probably wants to) operate much better than it does – but the problem, plainly and simply, is that Congress does not give it the respect it deserves, it keeps it severely underfunded. Arguably, underfunding the IRS makes people happy in that it cannot do the job it’s supposed to do; it cannot conduct the number of audits it’s supposed to. However, that same underfunding also means that it doesn’t operate efficiently and effectively, and many times operates in a fashion that is simply inappropriate and offends a lot of people.

As contra to many people’s preference as this may sound, the way to fix the IRS is to give it a lot more money, so that it could coordinate its computer systems, operate at a more professional level, and do its job. If that happened, what we would probably see is the IRS auditing more well off operations and more exotic situations –and maybe even auditing (going after) Senators and Congress people, and various big ticket people. Thus, one angle, it makes you think, is the underfunding of the IRS a deliberate attempt (and you have to admit it’s pretty successful) by Congress -and now most deliberately by the president- to keep the IRS off its back?