GOP Moves to Protect Tax Cheats

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

While Republicans traditionally decry the notion of spending any government money on things that would benefit ordinary Americans, some are actually (quietly) in favor of infrastructure spending because repairing roads and bridges and increasing public access to the internet would ultimately benefit big business and the fat cats who donate to Republican campaigns.

It's never about us.  It's always about them.

And even though they bark loudly about fiscal responsibility and the folly of ever funding anything  promoted by Democrats, when a road actually does get widened or repaved, or a critical bridge gets replaced, you can count on GOP politicians popping up in front of the news cameras and taking credit for the improvements.

Currently Republican members of Congress are fighting to limit the infrastructure package proposed by President Biden.  They are fine with supporting things that will benefit their own districts or their donors, but draw the line when it comes to helping ordinary others.  One tactic that they are using to fight the overall infrastructure package is to insure that it is completely paid for and doesn't increase the country's overall debt.

Republicans, you see, are very money conscious and want the government to operate on a budget just like American families have to do.

Well, at least they worry about balancing budgets when Democrats are in charge.  When Republicans are running the government it is a different story.  They are quick to support military boondoggles and other things that directly benefit the fat cats and big corporations that donate regularly to Republican politicians - and they don't give a wit about how their priorities are paid for.   The national debt always skyrockets when the country is under the leadership of Republicans - and then when Democrats come back into power, they suddenly begin worrying about how all of the Democratic programs will be paid for.

The GOP mantra is something like "fiscal responsibility for thee, but not for me."

Now, of course, with a massive infrastructure bill on the political horizon, Republicans are wracked with worry about how it will be funded.

Part of the Democratic plan for paying for the infrastructure package, a plan with will create millions of good-paying jobs and ultimately benefit all Americans, is to provide additional funding to the Internal Revenue Service so that the agency can do a better job of identifying tax cheats and making them pay their fair share.   (In April of this year the head of the IRS opined that total tax evasion in the United State may total more that a trillion dollars a year.   A trillion is one thousand billions, and a billion is one thousand millions - so a trillion dollars is one helluva big pile of cash!)

The money being stolen from the United States by tax cheats would go a long way toward fixing much of our nation's crumbling infrastructure, and it could be accessed without raising anyone's taxes - yet the GOP is fighting that approach to raising the needed funds.  They are painting the IRS as villainous in what is actually a brazen attempt to protect the people and companies who have long profited from not paying their share of the tax burden - people and companies who are often big donors to the Republican Party.

New York City hotelier Leona Helmsley was once famously quoted by her maid as saying (of the rich, such as herself), "We don't pay taxes.  Only the little people pay taxes."  Another famous New York City hotelier spent years hiding his tax records, essentially promoting the same philosophy as Leona.

The Internal Revenue Service has traditionally lacked the money and staff to go after the big crooks, and have instead spent years shaking dollars from the more common members of the citizenry.  (The big crooks hire lawyers and accountants and fight back, while the little guys just cough up back taxes and fines and go on with their lives.)

And Republicans want to keep it that way.  GOP Senator Rob Portman of Ohio declared that increased funding for the IRS to help pay for the infrastructure package was "off the table."  It is not even to be discussed.  My own congressman, Republican Jason Smith of Missouri's 8th, sent out his weekly email prattle last night in which he demonized the IRS as being somehow un-American - yet he showed no disdain at all of the people who steal from our country by intentionally cheating on their taxes.

The Grand Old Party is a bit two-faced when it comes to paying taxes.  They are fine with the "little people" assuming the tax burden and funding the government, but draw the line at demanding that the rich also do their part.  Of course, one reason the rich get away with underpaying taxes is because of the complex nature of our tax code, a set of rules based on laws enacted by members of Congress - people who also benefit from the complexity of the very rules and regulations that their work generates.

Members of Congress take care of themselves and their donors, and the rest of us pay the bills!  It's a system that is especially popular among members of the Republican Party, and they don't want to put it at risk by giving the IRS better funding.  The tax collection system is broken, and Republicans want to make sure that it stays broken!