South Dakota Congressman Dusty Johnson said last month he was really mad about the IRS being understaffed and underfunded. So maybe he’ll get on board with Oregon Senator Ron Wyden’s suggestion that we buff up the IRS so it can catch tax cheats and fund an extension of extra Affordable Care Act subsidies:
Wyden, while stopping short of explicitly saying he was pushing to link the ideas, noted that additional funding for the IRS to increase enforcement against “wealthy tax cheats” could raise $120 billion.
“Our work on IRS enforcement and generating over $100 billion on wealthy tax cheats finally paying their fair share, if you do something like that you can generate resources,” Wyden said.
Wyden did not give a specific number of years he wants for an ObamaCare extension, but, asked if he wanted to make the subsidies permanent, he replied that he wants an extension “as long as I possibly can get it” [Peter Sullivan, “Democratic Finance Chair Floats Longer ObamaCare Extension, IRS Enforcement,” The Hill, 2022.07.26].
Last September, the Congressional Budget Office said investing an additional $80 billion over ten years in the IRS would snare an additional $200 billion in tax revenue. Get on that bandwagon, Dusty! Every dollars we spend hiring more IRS agents will pay for itself and produce another $1.50 for good public works!
