Posted on 07/05/2014 8:06:40 PM PDT by smoothsailing
July 4, 2014
Pete Kasperowicz
After months of frustration with the IRS over the targeting scandal and lost emails, House Republicans will exact some revenge next week by passing legislation that cuts the IRS operating budget by $341 million compared to current levels.
GOP leaders plan to call up a spending bill for fiscal year 2015 that funds the IRS and other agencies, but singles out the IRS for the targeting scandal and other problems that have surfaced over the last few years.
“The committee remains troubled by the activities of the Internal Revenue Service… including the inappropriate singling out of certain tax-exempt groups based on their political beliefs, wasteful spending on conferences and videos, and providing bonuses to staff without evaluating their conduct or tax compliance,” the House Appropriations Committee wrote in a report accompanying the bill.
Last year’s spending bill took some steps against the IRS, but the committee said more needs to be done to make sure the IRS stops targeting conservative groups, and stops wasting money. Last year, for example, it was revealed that the IRS spent $60,000 on a Star Trek parody video, which the agency eventually agreed “did not reflect the best stewardship of resources.”
More recently, the IRS has frustrated Congress by saying it lost emails from Lois Lerner that Republicans sought as part of their investigation into the targeting scandal.
“Given these concerns, the committee cannot support the administration’s proposal to increase the IRS by more than $1 billion over the fiscal year 2014 level,” the bill report states.
The legislation funds the IRS at $10.95 billion — the $341 million reduction is a cut of about 3 percent.
“This funding level is sufficient for the IRS to perform its core duties, including taxpayer services and the proper collection of funds, but will require the agency to streamline and make better use of its budget,” the committee said.
Aside from just the funding cut, the bill prohibits the IRS from issuing a new regulation dealing with tax-exempt groups, and prohibits the IRS from issuing bonuses without examining employee conduct or whether employees have paid their own personal taxes.
Earlier this year, it was found that more than 1,000 IRS workers who had failed to pay their taxes on time received more than $1 million in bonuses over the last few years. In April, GOP senators proposed legislation to prohibit bonuses to IRS workers with tax troubles.
The spending bill would also prevent the IRS from spending any money to target groups based on their ideological beliefs, or for exercising their First Amendment rights. And, it would prevent spending on more Star Trek videos, and require detailed reporting on how the IRS spends its money.
The bill would also prevent the IRS from any further implementation of Obamacare.
“At a time when the IRS has demonstrated little ability to either self-police or self-correct, the IRS has even more authority over Americans’ health coverage,” the committee wrote. “The committee finds this expansion of IRS authority to be unacceptable and, therefore, prohibits funding to implement the individual mandate and prohibits transfers from the Department of Health and Human Services to fund the IRS’s implementation of the Affordable Care Act.”
Once the House passes the bill, it will go to the Senate, and could be the subject of a House-Senate negotiation later this year.
Zero out their conference budget. Require them to do any intra-city travel by Greyhound bus. Office thermostats must be set to a no lower than 85 deg F in summer and no higher than 50 degrees in the winter.
Further, any IRS worker owing back taxes has 50% of pay devoted to repayment. Require IRS to obey every regulation and record keeping requirement they impose upon the taxpayer.
Revenge? Why not do something that’s actually meaningful like cutting taxes to a flat rate of 10%-15%? Give us all a break and nuke the idiot tax code at the same time.
Good to hear.
Yea right. Sure they will. Boehner will cry. McConnell will sigh. Harry will grab more Vaseline to use on the taxpayers. The popular acronym BOHICA peasants will apply when it comes down to crunch time within the GOP leadership. They may protect special interest like Chamber of Commerce but they’ll make it up on our side of it.
You can’t be serious? Do you suppose that increasing the IRS budget would be better for the lower income folks? I have news for you; the IRS is already harassing and shaking down middle class taxpayers. They also routinely go after any political opponent of Obamunism. They have stopped being a neutral revenue collection agency and have become a political enforcement tool for Obama. They need to be punished fittingly. A 3% cut is not what I consider punishment fitting their behavior. It will not even put a big dent in the lavish conventions or other blatant wasting of funds by that department. I think that cutting their budget and workforce in half would get their attention and help focus them on what they are supposed to be doing.
And in other news the IRS has announced increase fines and civil forfeiture to the tune of $341,000,000.
WRIST SLAP!
IRS needs to be DEFUNDED.
The Income Tax Amendment needs to be repealed and replaced with a national sales tax.
$341 Million?
And.........just where is this money going to go?
Back to the taxpayers.....no.
Where?
Well silly, back to the government of course.....and eventually through the back door to the IRS.
That’s why while it sounds good, it’s not. Just more “smoke and mirrors” to entertain the proles. (Orwell)
Not nearly enough...keep cutting into the bone.
That would cover the cost of their “IRS Star Trek movie budget”. So when are they going to start cutting significant funds?
How about passing a flat tax and zero out the budget.
This is a good first step.
Next, round up all the weapons and ammo from federal agencies.
Then, close the Departments of Education and Energy. They’re worthless money suckers.
ABOLISH the IRS!
As long as this rogue agency exist, Americans are not safe. Guilty until proven innocent is repugnant to our free society. No longer should the government have the ability to attack American citizens through the strong arm tactics of the IRS.
How about prohibiting exemptions for out of country kids, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles....imagine the 300,000 new illegals when they get an ITIN# and claim those dependents on top of what is going on today.
D@mn, they may have to give up a Las Vegas Training exercise.
The Republicans are not stupid and neither is Obama, they have different goals than we do so their actions appear stupid to us, but not to those that understand the objective.
We the voters, are the stupid ones for believing we have two parties.
See that wasn’t so hard. Why did it take so long to implement?
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