July 18, 2021
We are so fortunate that we have reporters at the Washington Post who can tell us the true motives of politicians. In a piece on the decision by Republican Senators to refuse to go along with increased I.R.S. funding for enforcement, the Post told readers:
“Senators had hoped to raise about $100 billion by empowering the Internal Revenue Service to pursue unpaid federal taxes, but Republicans balked at the idea out of a concern it would give the tax-collection agency too much power to scrutinize families’ and corporations’ finances.”
It’s really great that the Post can tell us that the Republicans concern here was that the I.R.S. would be too powerful. Those of us who are unable to read politicians’ minds might have thought that the Republicans didn’t want to increase I.R.S. enforcement because it would allow it to collect more taxes from rich people who cheat on their taxes. Since many of these rich people contribute to Republican politicians, this would be in effect a service to the people who help to keep them in office.
Thankfully we have the Washington Post to tell us that the Republican effort to block a crackdown on rich tax cheats had nothing to do with serving their campaign contributors. It was all about a principled commitment to an ineffectual tax authority.
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