The Baltimore City Inspector General (IG) saga continues. The IG Advisory Board, which oversees the IG, recently tried to have a closed door meeting to evaluate the IG’s (Isabel Cumming) performance. Cumming has been kicking butt by identifying millions of dollars in wasteful spending. The Advisory Board announced the meeting a day before it was scheduled to happen. The problem is that Baltimore city code required 7 days’ notice. Whoops! They eventually postponed the meeting until October 28th. There’s still more to do. The IG has been doing exceptional work while the Advisory Board has been politicized and trying to undermine IG Cumming. Here’s a good op-ed that shows exactly what is happening. IGs need to be shielded from political pressure and the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) stands squarely behind IG Cumming.
Don’t Touch My IRA
Last week, TPA launched “Don’t Touch My IRA.” The campaign was launched to protect middle class families and their traditional Roth IRAs from a deeply-irresponsible tax proposal which would jeopardize the retirement security of millions of Americans. As part of their desperate (and hopefully failing) effort to pay for their $3.5 trillion social wealth distribution legislation, Joe Biden and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) are proposing draconian changes to the way that retirement savings are treated in IRAs and Roth IRAs.
Senator Wyden’s legislation that would hamstring these crucial retirement savings vehicles. The Wyden proposal would limit the amount of money that can be put into these IRAs and cap the amount of allowable growth in the accounts over time. It would also limit the ability for some to move money from sub-optimal retirement accounts into a Roth IRA. Like most other awful tax proposals coming out of Congress, this is being pitched in the name of attacking the super-wealthy. Based on the illegally obtained data from ProPublica, Wyden cites PayPal founder Peter Thiel’s use of these accounts to make millions of dollars. Wyden describes Roth IRAs as “yet another tax dodge that allows mega millionaires and billionaires to avoid paying taxes.” Thiel used his Roth IRA to make a number of successful investments. The glaring problem with the new legislation is that Wyden and his allies fail to demonstrate the actual harm of this approach. Investors get to put their money into the economy and help American companies and minimize the risk of doing so. This benefits them in the long run – as it did with Thiel – and will also benefit the future recipients of the money Thiel made off of those investments. Those tax-free dollars will benefit the innovators of tomorrow. Just because Uncle Sam did not get his cut of those transactions does not mean they weren’t good for Thiel or good for the economy as a whole.
Wyden’s plan will not be limited to billion dollar IRAs. That is because there are not nearly enough of them to generate the sort of meaningful revenue needed to fulfill his desire of getting this text into the $3.5 trillion budget deal. Wyden’s plan sets a cap at $5 million for Roth IRAs. Given that the value of these accounts depend on the growth of sometimes risky investments and accumulate over the life of someone’s career, it is likely that many middle-class holders of these Roth IRAs will hit this arbitrary benchmark before retirement age. The result will be a significant deterrent to prudent financial planning. Under such a scheme, there is very little upside to making risky investments for long term goals. Roth IRAs would become high risk with government-limited rewards. With this lack of investment, the entire economy will eventually suffer. Innovation will be stalled and middle class Americans will be retiring later. Meanwhile, the only people who will still be able to afford certain risks will – ironically – be the billionaires like Peter Thiel. Such is the case with most government regulation.
Any changes to the IRA system will jeopardize trust in the financial system and make life more difficult for average savers and investors. Current IRA plans promise retirement security for people who work hard and save money. If this disastrous plan succeeds, it will change the rules in the middle of the game, and threaten the long-term savings of millions of Americans and small businesses.
IRS Fails to Protect Privacy
Congress wants to give the IRS $80 billion more in taxpayer money to conduct audits to bring in $200 billion in revenue. There are SO many problems with this proposal. Earlier this year, ProPublica released a series of documents on some of America’s wealthiest individuals. These records and documents contained the sensitive personal tax and income information about these individuals and amounted to a gross violation of privacy. It should be noted they also showed absolutely no evidence of wrongdoing. These records were leaked illegally from the IRS to ProPublica, presumably to drive political sympathies for President Joe Biden’s tax proposals. Despite Attorney General Merrick Garland making it a “priority,” the federal government has not identified the source of the leak.
From 2013 to 2015, the American people discovered that the IRS routinely targeted organizations and individuals for heightened scrutiny due to their political beliefs. The agency had systemically subjected right-leaning organizations for audits, denial of tax-exempt status, and other processes that cost both time and money. Then-IRS Commissioner Lois Lerner resigned over the scandal. Things have not gotten better for the IRS since. In a report recently published by the Treasury Department’s Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), the IRS was found to have a severe problem when it comes to sanitizing their computers. No, this does not mean that the IRS is disobeying COVID-19 protocols and leaving a dirty work station. It is, once again, an indication that the IRS is playing fast and loose with the private information of the American people. According to the IRS, the sanitation process is meant to “protect the confidentiality of sensitive information” and so that “unauthorized individuals [cannot] attempt to reconstruct data and gain access to sensitive data from media that has not been properly sanitized.” According to TIGTA’s own report, such failures are reason enough to create a lack of trust in the IRS. It also noted that unauthorized disclosures can often cause harm to the individuals who are the subject of such disclosures. In short, the IRS has failed time and time again to prove themselves an effective steward of taxpayer information. At times, their stewardship has gone beyond neglectful to outright malfeasance. While the American people have seen this play out a number of times, elected officials have decided to ignore the issue. Unfortunately, this is no longer a viable option if we want to avoid the problem becoming much worse.
Instead of delegating more power and resources to the IRS, Congress needs to crack down on rogue actors within the agency. Before anyone touches the tax code itself, Congress needs to demonstrate it is ready, willing, and able to address these abuses. To this point, they have failed. This is why a new IRS scandal or shortcoming fails to surprise anyone enough to be front-page news anymore. The failings of the IRS are, in part, the failures of a legislative branch that has, to this point, been unwilling to provide needed oversight.
BLOGS:
MEDIA:
September 27, 2021: Townhall.com ran TPA’s op-ed, “Federal Tobacco Tax Could Prove Hazardous to State Budgets.”
September 30, 2021: Forbes quoted TPA in an op-ed titled. “U.S. Government Is Spending $42.5 Billion To Own The “New Internet”
October 1, 2021: I appeared on the Chris Stigall Show on 990 AM (Philadelphia, Pa.) to talk about unspent COVID relief funds
October 1, 2021: I appeared on 93.1 WACV (Montgomery, Ala.) to talk about the $3.5 trillion budget and Department of Labor nominee David Weil.
October 1, 2021: American Banking ran TPA’s op-ed, “Risk of government snooping undermines the case for postal banking.”
October 3, 2021: Florida Daily (Jacksonville, Fla.) quoted TPA in their story, “Fiscal Watchdogs Look at the Wasteful Spending in the Democrats’ $3.5 Trillion Spending Package.”
October 4, 2021: WBFF Fox45 (Baltimore, Md.) interviewed me about using tobacco taxes to pay for the reconciliation bill.
October 4, 2o21: The Savannah Morning News (Savannah, Ga.) ran TPA’s op-ed, “Point: D.C. sending mixed messages to Georgia smokers.”
October 5, 2921: The Bozeman Daily Chronicle (Bozeman, Mont.) quoted TPA in their article, “Gallatin County approves broadband project.”
October 5, 2021: WBFF quoted TPA in their story, “Inspector General Advisory Board expected to hold 3rd meeting, mostly closed to public.”
October 6, 2021: Townhall.com ran TPA’s op-ed, “Federal Health Agencies Confused About Statistics, Policymakers Should Pay More Attention.”
October 6, 2021: WBBF Fox45 quoted TPA in their story, “Mayor Scott reiterates moving OIG hearing for transparency, advocates for closed session.”
October 6, 2021: Hillreporter.com quoted TPA in their story, “Marjorie Taylor Greene Busted Bilking Taxpayers for Illegal Mailer.”
October 6, 2021: The Center Square ran TPA’s op-ed, “Your information is not safe with the IRS.”
October 6, 2021: Breitbart quoted TPA in their story, “Tax Group Launches Campaign Against Biden’s Attack on Retirement Plans.”
October 6, 2021: WBFF Fox45 quoted TPA in it’s story, “IG oversight hearing postponed. Next meeting expected to be mostly closed to public, too.”
October 6, 2021: The Center Square ran TPA’s op-ed, “Your information is not safe with the IRS.”
October 7, 2021: WBFF Fox45 (Baltimore, Md.) interviewed me about the IG Advisory Board.
October 7,2021: I appeared on WBOB 600 AM (Jacksonville, Fla.) to talk about unemployment.
October 7, 2021: The Center Square ran TPA’s op-ed, “Why is America’s mail carrier cashing checks?”
October 7, 2021: NTD television interviewed me about the tax increases in the $3.5 trillion budget bill.
October 8, 2021: The Jacksonville Journal-Courier (Jacksonville, Ill.) ran TPA’s op-ed, “Feds could have farms and consumers feeling the heat.”
October 9, 2021: Townhall.com ran TPA’s op-ed, “Judicial Overreach Hobbles Postal Reform.”
October 11, 2021: WBFF Fox45 (Baltimore, Md.) interviewed me about divesting from fossil fuels pensions
October 11, 2021: Townhall..com ran TPA’s op-ed, “Dear Congress, Federal Health Agencies Don't Need More Funding for E-Cigarette Alarmism.”
October 12, 2021: I appeared on KRC 550 AM (Cincinnati, Ohio) to talk about the infrastructure bill and vaccine mandates.
October 12, 2021: Filtermag.org ran TPA’s op-ed, “Health Canada Is Poised to Take a Disastrous Wrong Turn on Vaping.”
October 13, 2021: I appeared on the Mike Gallagher Show (nationally syndicated) to talk about the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill.
October 13, 2021: The Center Square ran TPA’s op-ed, “Postmaster General DeJoy must change course – and fast.”
October 14, 2021: WBFF Fox45 (Baltimore, Md.) interviewed me about the proposed new IRS reporting requirements.
October 13, 2021: The Daily Mail quoted TPA in their article, “Biden will give around 70M retirees a 5.9% boost in Social Security payments in the biggest cost of living adjustment in 39 years - to keep up with rampant inflation under his administration.”
October 14, 2021: I appeared on WBOB 600 AM (Jacksonville, Fla.) to talk about unemployment.
October 15, 2021: I appeared on America Voice With Steve Gruber to talk about the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill.
Have a great weekend!
