Stop starving the beast of the IRS (Barf Alert!)

The Washington Post ^ | July 1, 2014 | Catherine Rampell

[magellan]

Pretty much everyone hates the Internal Revenue Service. And I realize this is an especially strange time to stick up for the agency, given the suspicious disappearance of a few thousand key e-mails that Congress wants to see. But right now, the IRS desperately needs a champion.

Our country’s fiscal future — not to mention taxpayers’ collective mental health — depends on it.

The IRS generates way more money than it spends, after all. For every dollar appropriated to the IRS in the 2013 fiscal year, the agency collected $255, according to the national taxpayer advocate’s office. That’s a darn good return on investment.

[servantboy777]

ABOLISH THE IRS!

This un-American agency in which citizens are guilty until proven innocent should never have the ability to intimidate Americans or alter the results of an election again.

[magellan]

Leave the IRS alone!

[mrs. a]

“That’s a darn good return on investment.”

I work hard for my pay. Some of it I invest as I think would be of the best benefit to me. Some of it is taken from me without my consent and “invested” as I do not wish it to be.

I am able to make a distinction between the two.

[Unam Sanctam]

“The IRS generates way more money than it spends,”

Sorry, you didn’t build that. The taxpayers did.

[Mr. Jeeves]

For every dollar appropriated to the IRS in the 2013 fiscal year, the agency collected $255, according to the national taxpayer advocate’s office. That’s a darn good return on investment.

Bank robbers use the same tactics and offer a similar return on investment - but at least I don't have journalists telling me I need to give sanction and approval to their actions.

[JimRed]

There are better ways of collecting taxes.

Has an unbiased analysis of the revenue that would have been collected by the FairTax over a particular time period (in relation to IRS collections for the same time) ever been performed?

[griswold3]

Reading the comments, I learned a new word “Tealiban” (as in Taliban).
I am still so surprised at the number of folks who believe that the government is a force for good. It is a necessary evil that should be scaled at a level to control with oversight. Now we have created a monster that means to devour us all.

[alrea]

I am still so surprised at the number of folks who believe that the government is a force for good. It is a necessary evil that should be scaled at a level to control with oversight. Now we have created a monster that means to devour us all.

Be even more surprised that a journalist can take up for them in the same days they are being investigated for probably stealing an election.

[tom paine 2]

Tax collection could be done with no one employed at the IRS by instituting a flat tax.

[MrB]

Two things need to change about the IRS -

First, the taxpayer must be innocent until proven guilty.

Second, it should be considered fraudulent and malpractice for the IRS to spend more in resources than a dispute is worth in order to collect on the disputed amount.

Of course, if the tax system were structured such that the IRS was not needed at all - so much the better.

[magellan]

"The IRS generates way more money than it spends."

The stupid, it burns.

Yes, that is the dumbest statement ever by a D.C. "journalist". Bank robbers generate way more money than they spend too.

[Rusty0604]

“Budget cuts beget distrust in government, which begets more budget cuts.”

Sounds like a public employee union bumper sticker.

[Rusty0604]

I looked at the author’s twitter (Catherine Rampell).
A couple of posts:

“Supreme Court Upholds Little Caesar’s Right to Feed Christian Employees to Lions”

“Post-Hobby Lobby, Religious Orgs Want Exemption From LGBT Hiring Order”

You are correct; libtard!

[McBuff]

I am still so surprised at the number of folks who believe that the government is a force for good. It is a necessary evil that should be scaled at a level to control with oversight.

Great minds think alike. . ."Government, at its best, is a necessary evil. . .at its worse, an intolerable one." Thomas Paine

"If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.” James Madison

[CodeToad]

“Our country’s fiscal future “

Our future has been disrespected and smashed by out of control spending, not the lack of our giving. We already give to federal, State, and local governments a combined 55% of our labor. Not even the serfs of old England gave more than 30% to the King.

[Durus]

I didn't go to an expensive boarding school, in fact I ditched my poor white trash high school as much as I possibly could. (yet somehow I still managed nearly perfect SAT scores). Despite the perceptions of advantages this air head has over me I know that the IRS doesn't “Generate Revenue”, they collect taxes. Further when one branch of government takes tax dollar and assigns to the operation budget of an agency, it isn't considered a "investment".

Let us for a second pretend that this reporter isn't an idiot and that it is correct that IRS's budget is an investment and that the tax dollars they collect is "revenue". It is simply preposterous that it costs 1 dollar out of every 255 (or .39 percent) to collect this "revenue" when the overwhelming majority of "revenue" is just sent to them and requires them to do absolutely nothing except watch the money pour in. What is their justification for using .39% of all taxes collected? might it be their auditing conservatives and harassing tea party groups that makes them so valuable?

[ataDude]

...generates...

WOW!