Wasting And Wanting: Our Politicians and Our Needy

In this time of Thanksgiving, I was quite annoyed by an Associated Press article this week. According to the article, the IRS has determined that it is losing out on about $380 million a year in income taxes when separated or divorced parents both claim their children as deductions on their tax forms, basically double counting the deductions they are entitled to and underpaying the IRS.


What was really annoying was the IRS spokesperson who said that while the tax agency had identified and quantified the non-payment of income taxes, they would do nothing to go after the abuse since it was not worth their time and resources. This kind of attitude raises any number of questions:

• When is a taxpayer abuse big enough for the IRS to get interested? $380 million sounds like a lot of money to me to go wanting, especially if you have done enough work to identify the abuse and quantify the abuse. Obviously, the IRS has already done some work on the issue.

• If the IRS acknowledges that it is missing out on $380 million on this just one, specific type of abuse, what other types of abuses are they not following up on? Fix a lot of $380 million abuses and before you know it you are saving some real money for the taxpayers.

• If the IRS does not have the time, resources, and desire to close down this abuse, why would they not hire a collection agency or company to do it for them in a risk free manner? Why would they not go to a collection specialist (or several) and offer a deal: we will give you 10% (or 15-20%) for every delinquent dollar you collect for this specific type of abuse. If the collection agency collects no money, they get no reward, Risk free, no money up front from the IRS to the collection specialists. I am sure there are plenty of capable collection agencies in the country that would salivate about the opportunity to collect on a multi-million bounty, especially since the IRS has done a lot of the identification work up front. Makes no sense to not follow in this manner - while the IRS would not get all $380 million, it would get something with very little risk vs. getting nothing.

However, let's put this abuse in Thanksgiving day terms, which is what really annoys me. The major supermarket chain in my area is Publix. For Thanksgiving, they are offering a deal where for $39.95 they will prepare a complete Thanksgiving Day dinner for your family. The dinner includes enough food to feed 8-10 people and includes several courses. If we assume that one purchase of $39.95 would serve two needy families this holiday season, then $380 million would theoretically serve 19 million needy American families if you could somehow transfer that tax shortfall from Americans who should have paid their correct taxes to Americans that might need a little help this holiday season.


Obviously, this is only a theoretical example, especially since 1) the government and political class would never be able to execute this massive type of program and 2) because the IRS/government is not even going to go after the $380 million abuse. This all gets back to our favorite new term: immobile government. Our Federal government has gotten so big and so inflexible that it rarely does the things it should do and has gotten its priorities so screwed up that one of its basic functions, helping citizens, usually gets lost in the bureaucracy of politics. In this type of country, the government should not be ignoring $380 million that is due to it while the needy go hungry.


Obviously, immobile government is created by the people that operate it, namely our political class. If government is immobile and ineffective, it has to be because our politicians have become the same. Think about it. Our politicians spend so much time on trivial matters that the big issues of taxpayer abuse and hungry Americans never get any kind of proper attention. They get up in arms about a mosque in New York City, or about a new caffeinated alcoholic drink, or about a college football playoff system or about the sound volume of television commercials or any of dozens of other non-issues. Meanwhile, taxes go uncollected and people go unfed.


Two steps from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" would address these broader governance issues. Step 1 would reduce the size of government 50% over a five year period by doing a ground up review of all government functions, eliminating them that are as trivial as worrying about the sound volume of televisions. If politicians have far fewer things on their plate, maybe they can focus on the important ones and finally get something done.


Step 39 would impose term limits on all Federally elected political seats. Most of the current politicians have been in office for more than just a few terms. Their reign has resulted in immobile government and they should have their immobile bodies removed from their positions by any law or Constitutional amendment that limits their time in government. We need some mobility in office, mobility that would walk over to the IRS offices and demand that a way be found to get that $380 million that is due the American public. Once the IRS gets the $380 million, this new mobile government would go after the next tax abuse and then the next one and so on. Not getting the unpaid tax money and having American families wanting on Thanksgiving day is not acceptable.






Our recent book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment
 
Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/