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MANY INDUSTRIES and sectors are struggling to hire at their required rate, but few remain as chronically understaffed as the military and border patrol. While the increasingly “woke” military is failing to win over its traditionally conservative young recruits, the humanitarian crisis at the southern border is in and of itself compelling evidence of the need to hire thousands of border agents.
Yet rather than solving the shortages in the military and border patrol, both of whom serve the vital role of protecting America from danger both foreign and domestic, Joe Biden and the Democrats are pouring resources into a very different kind of public servant. One of the key provisions of the (ironically named the Inflation Reduction Act) will cost taxpayers $1 trillion is a plan to hire 87,000 new agents for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Millions of working and middle-class Americans are struggling right now amid a rampant inflation crisis and an economic recession. Proponents of the bill say an enlarged IRS will only target the super wealthy. Yet according to the Wall Street Journal, The Joint Committee on Taxation, (Congress’s official tax scorekeeper,) between “78% to 90% of the money raised from under-reported income would likely come from those making less than $200,000 a year,” while only “4% to 9% would come from those making more than $500,000.”
The IRS is already globally notorious for its cutthroat methods of tax collection, and this bill paves the way for the expansion of a rogue agency facing serious questions of accountability. As noted by Foundation for Economic Education, under the Obama administration the agency “specifically targeted conservative nonprofit groups” and “illegally leaked the private tax documents of wealthy private citizens—who weren’t breaking any laws—to the media in order to make a political, partisan point in favor of increasing taxes on the rich.”
As of today, the IRS already has more 78,000 employees, although more than half of them remain eligible for retirement and are expected to leave the agency in the next five years. Nevertheless, the incoming cohort will, at the very least, double the agency’s size, making it larger than the FBI, US Coast Guard and Border Patrol combined. In one of their job postings, the agency warns potential applicants to expect to work “50 hours per week, which may include irregular hours, and be on-call 24/7, including holidays and weekends” and “Carry a firearm and be willing to use deadly force, if necessary.”
At a time when inflation is soaring and Americans are being asked to buckle their seatbelts, elected lawmakers should be looking to reduce public expenditure, cut the deficit and display a sense of fiscal responsibility. Governmental agencies still require adequate funding, although some are lacking far more than others. The IRS is not among them.
Ben Kew is English Editor of El American. He studied politics and modern languages at the University of Bristol where he developed a passion for the Americas and anti-communist movements. He previously worked as a national security correspondent for Breitbart News. He has also written for The Spectator, Spiked, PanAm Post, and The Independent
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Ben Kew es editor en inglés de El American. Estudió política y lenguas modernas en la Universidad de Bristol, donde desarrolló una pasión por las Américas y los movimientos anticomunistas. Anteriormente trabajó como corresponsal de seguridad nacional para Breitbart News. También ha escrito para The Spectator, Spiked, PanAm Post y The Independent.