Could the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) be set to undergo a transformation akin to the Department of Education, diminishing into a mere shadow of its former self? The recent appointment of President Donald Trump’s pick might just pave the way for this outcome.
As reported by the Associated Press on Thursday, former Missouri Representative Billy Long, a Republican, has been confirmed as the new IRS commissioner.
This development raises concerns about the agency’s future, particularly since Long previously championed legislation aimed at abolishing the IRS altogether.
In an email sent to IRS employees, Treasury Department Deputy Secretary Michael Faulkender expressed optimism regarding Long’s leadership. He emphasized that Long would be “critically important to the IRS at this time of transformation, as we build a modern IRS that will deliver on the Secretary’s priorities of service, collections, and privacy for generations to come,” according to the Associated Press.
Interestingly, Long is not the first Trump appointee whose tenure could be perceived as a potential death knell for an agency. Linda McMahon, Secretary of the Department of Education, made it abundantly clear that she intended to render her own position obsolete.
On March 20, Trump issued an executive order directing her to take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education, transferring educational authority back to the states while ensuring the continuation of services and benefits relied upon by Americans.
In this order, Trump pointed out the Department of Education’s failure to adequately prepare young people for the future, citing alarming statistics: “13-year-olds’ mathematics scores are the lowest they have been in decades. 13-year-olds’ reading scores are the lowest since testing began over 30 years ago. Low-performing students are falling further behind. In 2023, 13 Baltimore high schools had zero students who tested proficient in mathematics.”
And what about the IRS?
In 2022, former President Joe Biden expanded the IRS by adding an astonishing 87,000 new agents, a move predicted to generate over $200 billion in additional revenue, according to the Heritage Foundation.
This leads many Americans to ponder: Why was this necessary?
The crux of the matter lies in how the government utilizes tax dollars.
When the IRS is busy collecting billions through enforcement measures under the Biden administration, while citizens observe a porous border allowing undocumented immigrants to access benefits funded by those same tax dollars, a disconnection becomes evident.
Whatever Long and Trump have in store for the IRS surely cannot be more detrimental than the previous four years of tumult. Perhaps it would be wise for Long to finish what he initially aimed to accomplish in Congress.
This article originally appeared on The Western Journal.
