Inflation Act Is the Problem, Not Solution

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Posted: Aug 17, 2022 12:01 AM

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A central pillar of the just-passed Inflation Reduction Act is $80 billion going to the IRS to hire some 87,000 new agents, doubling the current force, to chase down U.S. taxpayers who allegedly are not meeting their tax obligations. The rationale is we have a large national budget deficit – that is, government is bringing in less money than it spends – so a larger army of IRS agents chasing down tax deadbeats will help solve our nation’s fiscal problems. But part of this same new law in which U.S. taxpayers are asked to spend $80 billion to hire more IRS agents to shake down their neighbors who are supposedly not paying their fair share is $430 billion in new government spending, a large portion of which is earmarked for green energy projects of various shapes and forms. At the same time that we’re expanding our army of tax collectors, we continue to expand government and spending at an even faster pace. The Congressional Budget Office has just released its latest Long-Term Budget Outlook, and here we get a broader picture of the problem. According to the report, “From 1972 to 2021, total federal outlay …