The New York Times’ Alan Rappeport and Tiffany Hsu devoted 1,500 words to dismissing conservative concerns over potential IRS overreach, after news the agency is hiring 87,000 new agents, at least some of whom will carry firearms. The headline on the front of the Business section Friday read “Right-Wing Fury at I.R.S. Overhaul.” The online headline was more specific: “More Money for I.R.S. Spurs Conspiracy Theories of ‘Shadow Army.’”
Typically, conservative concerns and predictions were dismissed by the paper as “conspiracy theories.” The TimesHas a long history of supporting the IRS and catching GOP tax fraudsters. This is all in the name to fight income inequality. Was there empathy for taxpayers who are unfairly targeted by the IRS? This is never a priority.
It has been called President Biden’s “shadow army,” described as a strike force to shake down small businesses with assault rifles and likened to a militia of auditors on search-and-destroy missions.
A decades-long Republican antipathy toward the Internal Revenue Service has reached a new level of enmity with the passage of a Democratic-backed bill that gives the agency $80 billion to beef up its ability to go after tax cheats…
After poormouthing the “beleaguered agency,” the Times mislabeled dire predictions from Republicans, who “To promote unfounded conspiracies, they have taken advantage of the law about the threat that mom-and-pop shops and middle-class Americans will face from an emboldened tax collector.”
The reporters whined “Republicans have embraced the notion that a bigger I.R.S. is poised to be weaponized against them, often distorting facts to make their points….Republicans have amped up their efforts to demonize the I.R.S., including misconstruing how big it will grow and what new employees will be doing.”
Following the quote of Ted Cruz and Chuck Grassley as Republican senators, TimesAssured readers
However, despite social media posts claiming that the I.R.S. Officials from the Treasury stated that while new hires would be heavily armed but that only 1 percent would be working in positions that involve carrying weapons.
Eventually they had to deal with the inconvenient fact the IRS really did post a job stressing applicants must be “willing to use deadly force, if necessary.” (The IRS later deleted that line.) But even then the TimesLaisse an IRS spokesperson have the last word.
“The wording change on one web page followed continued misstatements and inaccuracies about I.R.S. employees carrying weapons,” said Khaalid Walls, an I.R.S. spokesman.
Rappeport and Hsu are to be commended for admitting:
I.R.S. The I.R.S. has been indecent in the pastThis included unfairly targeting conservative organizations that had applied during Obama’s administration for tax-exempt status. In 2013, the agency acknowledged that it had been singling out terms such as “Tea Party” and “patriot” as a shortcut for deciding if organizations were engaging in social welfare, which would qualify them for tax-exempt status, or if they might be political organizations….
But the following condescending, trust-the-government explanation was meant to soothe our ears: If you haven’t done anything wrong, why are you worried? In years past, the left would have surely mocked a defense of a government agency that assured citizens that agents won’t use their guns “without good reason.”
John Koskinen served as I.R.S. Commissioner in both the Obama administration and Trump administrations. John Koskinen said that he believed the Republican-led attacks on the agency were irresponsible. He also expressed concern that the I.R.S. This could result in violence against agency members. He said that only those taxpayers would have to pay more, while pointing out that agents don’t use their guns without good reasons.
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