Letter to the Editor by Thomas W. Hill

To the Editor:

Mr. Lowell Engle (September 14 letter) claimed that Ms. Ann Klees (August 31 letter) has been drinking the progressives’ “Kool-Aid.” If that is so, then Mr. Engle and Mr. Osmund Quandahl (September 14 letter) have been taking baths in the conservatives’ “Kool-Aid”.

Although many assertions in their letters deserve rebuttal, due to space limitations, I will focus on Mr.  Quandahl’s criticism of the $80 billion overhaul of the Internal Revenue Service (I.R.S.) over the next decade as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. He may have been repeating the shameful remarks of a prominent conservative who said - even though he knows better - that the new I.R.S. employees would be “going after middle-class and small-business people.”

The I.R.S. is a prime example of the approach taken by the conservative party to government. They refuse to adequately fund an agency by cutting its budget, and when it is unable to perform adequately, they say: “See, that proves government does not work!”

And, in truth, the I.R.S. needs help. Its budget, after accounting for inflation, declined by almost 20% during the last decade, and its workforce of about 75,000 is same size as it was in 1970. Its enforcement staff has fallen by 30% since 2010, and audits of millionaires have fallen by more than 70%.

The technology they use is antiquated and the understaffed personnel are unable to respond to taxpayers’ questions. In the last tax season, fewer than two out of ten calls were answered, and the average wait time was nearly an hour.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the I.R.S. will hire 5,000 new workers to answer telephone calls and more quickly respond to taxpayers’ questions. The number of enforcement agents is expected to double to about 13,000 from 6,500 over the next decade. Yellen has emphasized that the I.R.S. will focus on rich tax dodgers and crackdown on corporate tax evasion. Such efforts are expected to narrow the $7 trillion in taxes that are projected to go uncollected over the next decade. Households earning $400,000 or less and small businesses will not see an increase in audits.

All Americans should applaud these efforts that make the I.R.S. more effective and help ensure that the wealthy and corporations pay their fair share of the taxes that fund our country’s common good.

Thomas W. Hill
Lansing