The first sign of anger came two weeks ago when Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, began ranting President Joe Biden’s IRS plan. Politico reported yesterday that the Iowa Republican is not alone.
Add to the growing list another obstacle President Joe Biden faces in his negotiation of his massive spending plans: increasing opposition to one of the ways to pay for his proposal – the growth of the IRS. Conservative groups have launched a campaign of television commercials, social media messages, and emails to supporters criticizing the proposal to hire nearly 87,000 new IRS employees over the next decade to raise money from tax fraud.
At first glance, this might seem like an obvious dog-bite-man story: a Democratic White House wants to bolster the Internal Revenue Service, so White House opponents on the right are complaining. There doesn’t seem to be anything particularly surprising about that.
But just below the surface, there’s a little more to it than that. As we discussed earlier, Biden’s plan for the IRS is the kind of revenue-generating idea conservatives should be comfortable with.
When it comes to funding the president’s national agenda, there is a predictable battle over taxes – tax rates, to be precise. Democrats want to ask more of the rich and big corporations, while Republicans want to protect the rich and powerful while posing as a party of the working class.
But Biden’s IRS plan is a little different.
The service has been gradually undermined for years, which has made it far more difficult for the agency to aggressively pursue potential tax frauds, which in turn means less revenue for policy priorities. Spending more on the IRS would almost certainly mean a lot more money for the treasury, even at existing tax rates.
As Catherine Rampell recently stated in a column, “How can you increase tax revenue without collecting taxes? By improving enforcement of existing tax law and making sure every penny already owed is paid.”
Through some moves, strengthening the IRS could generate $ 700 billion in additional tax revenue over the next decade – not through tax hikes, but simply by enforcing the laws already on the books. For the party “Law and Order” this should not be too difficult an act.
In fact, White House officials tell Republicans, “We have the idea of increasing federal revenue to pay for key priorities without raising tax rates.”
To which Republicans effectively say to the White House, “We’re against it, too.”
As Eric Levitz noted, former Donald Trump Legislative Director Marc Short is helping to advance efforts against efforts to strengthen the IRS, and his group’s message is far from subtle:
The 30-second spot shows an army of shadowy IRS agents – all seemingly clones of the same man with glasses – stalking fearful middle-class taxpayers with surveillance drones. This is “the new America,” warns the spokesman, “where Congressional Democrats want to disappoint the police and Biden wants to add thousands of IRS agents.” To prevent their nation from turning into a dystopian hellscape where criminals murder with impunity – while IRS agents arrest small business owners for miscalculations – viewers must now call their agents.
There is a degree of irony in the message. The anti-IRS group, known as the Coalition to Protect American Workers, falsely accuses Congressional Democrats of wanting to disappoint the police, while also urging Congress to reject plans to strengthen the agency, which effectively serves as the tax police.
In other words, these conservatives want to be seen as law enforcement allies, except for those who enforce tax laws. The law would have made Americans believe that tax fraud is not a problem, but efforts to catch tax fraud are a problem.
So let’s take stock. There is broad consensus that there is a need to invest in US infrastructure. Can we increase the corporate tax rate? Republicans say no. Can we ask more of millionaires and billionaires? Republicans say no. Can we empower the IRS to enforce existing tax laws? The Republicans say no to that too.
There are some who have suggested that a bipartisan infrastructure package is still possible. My expectations are a little lower.