Republicans Are Attempting to Punish the IRS the Old Fashion Way: Hitting Them Where It Hurts

If proposed spending cuts are approved, the Internal Revenue Service enforcement department will have to operate with $1 billion less than planned in 2015. A bill to fund the agency in the next year already cuts $341 million, but House Republicans are digging deeper.
The GOP has piled four amendments – with one more reportedly on the way – onto the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2015 to whittle the budget down even further.

Link

Liberals will hate this but the truth hurts.

Lois Lerner deserves to be to thrown in jail. But hey let the animals out of the pasture. Facts are facts.

-SAP-

a reply to: SloAnPainful

I am crying rivers of tears.

Right.

I will not be happy until the Internal Revenue Service goes they way of the Pony Express.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

If you are a tax paying American you should be doing something... Crying won't help you...

-SAP-

Good start, now do some productive cuts...

President's pay, all of congress, staff and appointees, department heads, and everyone working in any capacity for any elected officials in US government... Effective immediatly all pay is performance based.

Pay begins at 50% public approval... And rate of pay begins at 50% of the former pay.... Full pay 100% at 100% public approval.

Less than half of Americans approve of job performance... No pay! No benefits, no travel expenses... Nothing!

a reply to: SloAnPainful

I'm all for cutting the funding to the IRS but did it really take a "scandal" to finally prompt something like this?
Just shows how child like our officials can be.
Doing things out of spite

originally posted by: Sremmos80
a reply to: SloAnPainful

I'm all for cutting the funding to the IRS but did it really take a "scandal" to finally prompt something like this?
Just shows how child like our officials can be.
Doing things out of spite

But that "spite" may not be "spite".

Only a few people knew about the IRS targeting before it became public.

Only a few in Congress knew, and some were actually participating.

All that has come to light now.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
a reply to: SloAnPainful

I am crying rivers of tears.

Right.

I will not be happy until the Internal Revenue Service goes they way of the Pony Express.

To bad the IRS lifespan wasn't that of the Pony Express. We wouldn't have to have this debate. Yee Haw!!!

If people really want to stick it to the IRS ?

Tell them the dog ate your tax return.

They can't argue worked for Lerner.

a reply to: xuenchen

Article seems to paint the picture that this is In response to the targeting, so don't see how this can be viewed of being anything but being done out of spite. They are mad about the targeting so they are punishing them.... out of spite

Good! Take their funding. In fact, shut em down altogether and go to a much simpler code that can fund the necessary programs and leave the people with a bit more on payday.

IRS has annual budgets on the order of $12* billion per year. For comparison, NASA's 2011 budget was about $18* billion. IRS have 3 main outlays: Taxpayer services, Enforcement and Operations Support.

According to the recent 2014 IRS budget (in pdf form), enforcement is the biggest of the 3 categories.

They are cutting enforcement by about 20%, (from about $5* billion to about $4* billion) the biggest category, which makes economic sense. I think Congress should have cut it by %50 percent because in political tactics, attacking the IRS will translate to votes in 2014.

*I am rounding to the nearest billions




edit: forgot link to pdg www.irs.gov...

originally posted by: Sremmos80
a reply to: xuenchen

Article seems to paint the picture that this is In response to the targeting, so don't see how this can be viewed of being anything but being done out of spite. They are mad about the targeting so they are punishing them.... out of spite

Do it out out spite then, you act like no government agency has ever been vindictive.Turn about is fair play and all that.

originally posted by: SloAnPainful

If proposed spending cuts are approved, the Internal Revenue Service enforcement department will have to operate with $1 billion less than planned in 2015. A bill to fund the agency in the next year already cuts $341 million, but House Republicans are digging deeper.
The GOP has piled four amendments – with one more reportedly on the way – onto the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2015 to whittle the budget down even further.

Link

Liberals will hate this but the truth hurts.

Lois Lerner deserves to be to thrown in jail. But hey let the animals out of the pasture. Facts are facts.

-SAP-

This is the best thing the republicans have done in years! Good for them. Everyone hates the IRS.

a reply to: SloAnPainful
This is barely a start... If I thought they were doing it on the basis of some 'principle' or 'concern' for the people of this nation...I might take a bit of hope... But - I only see them doing it for political-convenience/expediency.
They'll just 're-fund' ... after the elections...(otherwise, how could they continue to vote themselves pay raises?)

All of these idiots need to be audited... out of their jobs.

The IRS is completely unconstitutional and just needs to go away... immediately.

a reply to: Sunwolf

Your right but it just sucks they didn't do this for the good of the people, they did it to try and win a pissing match.

a reply to: SloAnPainful

Honestly...this benefits wealthy tax cheats.

It "feels" good to stick it to the IRS...but rather than cut funding, why not simplify the tax code? eliminate the thousands of pages of loopholes? Make it a simple, fair and understandable equation?

If they did that the IRS budget would shrink naturally AND the average American would benefit...rather than just politicians and the wealthy.

This is just leaving loopholes in place and eliminating the resources to enforce the remaining laws and it translates to simple Americans picking up the tab for the expanding tax avoidance and cheating by the top 2%.

For God's sake...simplify the tax code...that would reduce the bureaucracy and enforcement division much more than this kind of political stunt.