John,

We are the richest country on Earth, first name.

Yet tragically, 11 million children live below the poverty line, families across the country are forced to choose between putting food on the table or paying their medical bills, and 40% of Americans don’t have the funds they need to cover a $400 emergency.

That makes what I’m about to say even more infuriating: a bombshell report from the US Treasury earlier this month revealed that the richest 1% of Americans are not paying $163 billion they owe in taxes each year.⁽¹⁾

So just as inequality has exploded, our unjust tax system has simultaneously allowed the richest Americans to finagle their way out of paying billions in taxes.

We must fund the IRS to beef up enforcement, and collect all unpaid taxes from the richest Americans.

Join me and Democracy For America in demanding Congress fund the IRS and stop billionaire tax dodging.

Over the last 11 years, IRS funding has dropped by 19% according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities⁽²⁾, and since 2010 the agency has lost more than 30,000 full-time employees.⁽³⁾

Due to the IRS being so underfunded and understaffed, millionaires are far less likely to be audited than they used to be. As a result, the IRS fails to collect billions of dollars in taxes from the wealthy each year.

Just collecting all unpaid taxes from the richest 1% would generate at least $1.75 trillion over the next decade. That’s nearly half of the $3.5 trillion 10-year cost of the Democrats’ game-changing reconciliation package.

According to the same report from the Treasury Department, the taxes that the top 1% dodges each year are equal to all of the taxes paid by the lowest-earning 90% of taxpayers, or 3 percent of GDP.

What do you think would happen if the bottom 90% of taxpayers just completely avoided paying the taxes that they owe?

I certainly think that they wouldn’t be given the pass that the top 1% gets.

Ending poverty, passing universal healthcare and childcare, mitigating the climate crisis, and so much more requires that the wealthy pay their fair share.

With President Biden making calls to boost IRS funding by $80 billion over the next decade, will you stand with me and DFA as we demand Congress fund the IRS and stop billionaire tax dodging?

Thanks for taking action at this critical moment,

In solidarity,

Robert Reich
Former Secretary of Labor
Co-Founder, Inequality Media Civic Action

^{(1) The Case for a Robust Attack on the Tax Gap, Dept. of Treasury, September 2021
(2) The Need to Rebuild the Depleted IRS, Center on Budget Policy and Priorities July 2021
(3) Internal Revenue Service Progress Update, December 2020}