The IRS, beset by scandals over the agency’s politicization under Chairman President Obama, slashes its customer-service budget even as it rolls in taxpayer revenue:
IRS Commissioner John Koskinen has blamed the IRS’s “abysmal” customer service on congressional budget cuts–funding is down $1.2 billion from its 2010 peak–but a new congressional report points the finger back at the IRS. While congressional funding for the IRS remained flat from 2014 to 2015, the IRS diverted $134 million away from customer service to other activities.
In addition to the $11 billion appropriated by Congress, the IRS takes in more than $400 million in user fees and may allocate that money as it sees fit. In 2014, the IRS allocated $183 million in user fees to its customer service budget, but allocated just $49 million in 2015–a 76 percent cut.
John Koskinen may be the biggest weasel in all of “public service”.
The old Washington Monument strategy works every time… don’t even need to shut anything down anymore, just slow-walk “customer service.”
If the IRS needs more money – just take it!
Time to fast walk Koskinen into the unemployment lines. To be blunt, if I were living at 1600 Pennsylvania, my first budget would be based on the first 11 months’ spending–agencies are notorious for overspending in the last fiscal month so they can get bigger budgets. Top 10% of last month violators and top 10% of violators for fire sales of unused equipment get fired first month of the new fiscal year.
Bring government discretionary spending down 10% in a year, guaranteed.