[jackbill]

Witnesses known as the Hollywood 10, acting under orders from their communist bosses, refused to admit under oath that they were members of the Communist Party. For this contempt of Congress they went to jail for a brief of time.

If memory serves, all, or most, of the ten had been part of the Federal Writers' Project, which was part of the WPA (Work Progress Admin.). This program was a federally funded "make work" program for unemployed writers during the Depression.

Thus, the taxpayers had directly paid these communists to write their Soviet propaganda.

[VOA]

Thus, the taxpayers had directly paid these communists to write their Soviet propaganda.

yes, but...
My opinionated view is that the IRS followed FDR's orders to extract mnney
from the citizens doing the heavy lifting during hard times, gave it to
subversive writers...
and never told those taxpayers "Hey, I'm wasting your money on American communists writers!".