http://reason.com/blog/2014/12/29/no-fat-to-cut-at-the-irs-so-take-a-chain

No Fat to Cut at the IRS?So Take a Chainsaw to the Rest of the Beast.

CapitolLogan's RunJust before Christmas, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen called a press conference to complain that Congress just isn't giving tax collectors enough money to extract revenues from the American people. "We're well beyond cutting out any fat. And we're now into cutting, as people say, muscle headed toward bone."

Of course, Koskinen framed it in terms of customer service, and friendly media outlets immediately parroted the message that a $346 million cut, bringing the IRS budget down to $10.9 billion, inevitably means longer wait times on the phone for distraught taxpayers seeking answers for their pressing tax questions.

This is an all-hands-on-deck spin on IRS cuts, with National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson (who is theoretically on the victims' side, despite her government paycheck) recruited to caution that the IRS is "chronically underfunded" with unfortunate implications for taxpayer service and assistance.

Then again, that might not be so horrible an outcome, given that IRS assistance involved giving taxpayers bad advice 22 percent of the time back in 1987, 41 percent of the time in 1989, 22 percent of the time in 2002, and 43 percent of the time in 2003. And no matter the advice dispensed by the tax collectors themselves, taxpayers are on the hook for getting it right.

OMBOMBThese days, the IRS focuses more on how few calls it has the resources to answer rather than the dangerous possibility that one of its employees might actually pick up the phone and speak into it. Still, maybe a few cuts to taxpayer service and assistance aren't such a tragedy if that thins the ranks able to mangle the response to an occasional query.

But it's not just the call center taking a hit. Koskinen warns that a leaner IRS will collect less revenue.

Well, cry me a river. While I have a dream that someday wind will blow through the broken windows of the Capitol Building and chase trash around the abandoned hallways, this minor budget trim is unlikely to do the job. Federal government receipts are currently at 17.3 percent of GDP (XLS), expected to rise to 18.3 percent next year, and 19 percent in 2018. The beast, it ain't starving—to the contrary, it's fattening up on us. A bit of a diet won't hurt.

Given the alternatives, a few cuts to an IRS that may be at its least dangerous when it's illegitimately targeting political groups isn't all that frightening a prospect.

Aunti, I would like to take the whole dog-gone government, in DC, cut at least in half - than maybe they will do only half the damage they have been doing - they may even get rid of half of their DEAD WOOD.

They should cut 3/4 of all the Departments they have created, starting with education and turning that back to the states. There were 35 (agencies and departments)under just A, times 35 by the rest of the alphabet and it comes to a total of 910. Maybe some letters have fewer, but odds are some letters have even more.

They want their finger in every pot, I know what I'd like in that pot for their fingers.

Can you imagine if they turned the educational system over to TN, SC, LA, and Mississippi

Dumb Turd, you are the least educated, ignorant turd I have ever encountered. All government agencies are unconstitutional. The only reason they exist is because congress is tired of governing and passed their duties onto the executive branch. I suppose they did that so they could spend more time with the lobbyist who are buying their vote. Because the Dept. of Edu. is not legal they have no right to force states to follow their rule. You dumb shit, because libturds have run the country for the last 100 years you think you have the answers. Yu don't have a clue. It's really scary that dumb asses like you can vote. No wonder the country has become a cesspool. With a faggot president, and a drag queen as 1st lady and the liberal left's penchant for drag queen respectability. Pardon me while I puke.