First, I want to congratulate Dan Savickas for his promotion to Director of Tech Policy at the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA). 

First, I want to congratulate Dan Savickas for his promotion to Director of Tech Policy at the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA). Dan has a sharp understanding of tech issues, so this was an easy promotion to make. Now, on to less cheery news. The countdown to Tax Day continues. A recent study from Syracuse University found that nearly half of all audits conducted by the IRS in 2021 targeted the nation’s poorest taxpayers. Specifically, more than 300,000 of the agency’s 660,000 audits were aimed at taxpayers who claimed the Earned Income Tax Credit, which is designed to give support to those who need it most.


IRS Tax Season Power Grab Threatens Low-Income Americans

Before dreaded Tax Day even arrives, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is already anticipating a months-long backlog of millions of tax returns. With an added $675 million from the omnibus spending bill earlier this month, the IRS is dedicating many of those funds to enforcement and investigatory activities, rather than radically focusing on this backlog. This is terrible news for hard working Americans in lower income tax brackets who rely on a tax refund. Once a return is filed, the bad news continues for lower income filers. Publicly available data shows that the IRS disproportionately targets poorer communities for increased audit scrutiny. Shamefully, this scrutiny is also heavily directed at minority communities. The IRS neither denies nor repudiates these trends. In fact, IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig describes auditing poor Americans as “the most efficient use of available IRS examination resources.” Now, those available resources have gotten more formidable while struggling
Americans remain in the cross hairs. Rettig and the IRS further rationalize these practices by claiming it is easier to audit disadvantaged communities. It costs less, requires fewer staffers, and takes up less time because these particular demographics do not have the resources to fight back with any seriousness. Simply put, the IRS is a bully with the entire apparatus of the federal government (and billions of taxpayer dollars) at its back, making it the most dangerous kind.

What could make this problem even worse is a legislative issue gaining traction in the halls of Congress. A proposal from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) would put the IRS in charge of tax return filing. This is disastrous because the IRS is already struggling to handle the caseload it is already receiving from returns submitted the last two years. The IRS has shown no indication they can handle these added responsibilities with any competency. Second, this will give the IRS an enhanced ability to take advantage of vulnerable Americans. The agency has already demonstrated a desire and willingness to target low-income Americans for excess scrutiny. With the IRS in charge of returns, they can extort more from low-income Americans knowing the burden of proof will be on the taxpayer to prove they’ve been wronged and being guided by the fact that they won’t pursue a robust legal defense. Such a system has already been tried in California. California’s “ReadyReturn” or “CalFile” program has
state employees fill out tax returns for citizens, send them the filing, and leave it up to the taxpayer to simply sign it and mail it back. However, almost 80 percent of recipients throw away the pre-prepared return and opt to submit their own. This means that the program on a national level could be a monumental waste. These systems are also deceptively billed as a “free” tax filing. The government’s development of tax return software is done at a higher cost than companies like Intuit. Government employees are also paid more than private tax preparers. Ironically, Americans won’t notice the difference in a one-time fee, but the charge will be taken out via tax liability, which would be almost unilaterally determined by the IRS under such a proposal.


It is also difficult to imagine how much information gathering the IRS would have to do to reasonably prepare tax returns for millions of Americans. Unfortunately, the IRS has proven a poor steward of sensitive information. A Department of Treasury investigation showed both that IRS equipment is susceptible to cyber-attacks and confidential information is not disposed of in a proper manner. This new power for the IRS puts the information of millions at risk. If IRS is to do anything with extra money it needs to be securing their data. The IRS does not have the best interests of taxpayers at heart. They do not know what is best for each American. Allowing them to set the baseline for tax liability for each American is a costly endeavor and one that will no doubt extort more money than necessary from hard-working Americans. Given the myriad issues that currently exist within the IRS, proposals to put it in charge of national tax return filing is unnecessary at best, malicious at worst.



The WHO’s Deadly Political Science Problem

It is widely known that the taxpayer-funded World Health Organization (WHO) did not cover itself in glory at the beginning of the Covid-19 outbreak. Despite reports all over the world of the virus escaping the confines of China, it was not until mid-March 2020 that the WHO finally conceded that widespread community transmission was occurring and officially declared a pandemic. Recent news from Canada suggests that the taxpayer-funded WHO is failing the global population once again by declaring it will “very likely” not approve the first Canadian-produced Covid vaccine. This is based on the bizarre premise that a tobacco company owns a minority share interest in the company which manufactures the vaccine.


This is the first plant-based Covid vaccination, and has been developed by Medicago, a Quebec-based company in a joint enterprise with pharmaceutical giant Glaxo SmithKline Beecham. Canadian authorities have approved it for use but the WHO has denied emergency approval because Philip Morris International owns a 21 percent stake in Medicago. The vaccine is manufactured in a fast-growing relative of the tobacco plant which enables doses to be produced in weeks, rather than months, as is the case with traditional methods. Furthermore, as the plants are grown in greenhouses and not a lab, the vaccines can be produced locally in low and middle-income countries instead of relying on expensive technology elsewhere. Developing nations have been crying out for supplies of vaccinations through the Covax scheme, which is a partnership between the WHO and two international groups with the aim of providing vaccines to hundreds of millions of people in need around the world. Without WHO approval,
these vaccines are not eligible for Covax, and they will therefore be denied to the developing world. If the WHO claims to be looking after the world’s health, it makes no sense to keep these vaccinations from the people who need it most. It seems they would prefer to see people die through lack of vaccination because of a petty and unrelated squabble with an industry.


The WHO’s true intentions about virtue signaling rather than advocating for public health go beyond this vaccine. The world’s public health organization has recently moved from tackling the harms of smoking to instead declaring that they are in a battle against “Big Tobacco.” At the 2018 WHO World Conference on Tobacco or Health (WCTOH), keynote speaker, Michael Bloomberg, an ideological anti-vaping advocate and funder of WHO reports, invoked sabre-rattling rhetoric, saying “the Tobacco Industry is trying all means to circumvent our efforts … the day tobacco no longer claims lives is the day we win the war.” The result is that now the WHO’s tobacco control arm is more interested in demonizing industry than reducing the use of combustible tobacco. There are currently 1.1 billion smokers worldwide yet the WHO has spent much of its energy in recent years encouraging national governments to ban all safer nicotine alternatives, simply because some of them are made by the tobacco industry. It is
estimated that one billion lives could be lost to smoking in the 21^st century, 480,000 every year in the U.S. alone. But, WHO emphasis has been on cheering bans imposed on low-risk alternatives which effectively protect the incumbent cigarette trade. Such a puerile policy approach can only result in unnecessary deaths. By comparison, global deaths from Covid currently stand at a relatively lower 6 million since the pandemic began, but the WHO is engaged with points-scoring against industry rather than saving people from dying of the disease in low- and middle-income countries. Their unethical and depraved reasoning seems to be that because cigarettes have caused so much harm, the WHO will punish industry by preventing the sale of less hazardous products and declining distribution of a vaccine tangentially connected to a tobacco company, both of which will inevitably cause even more disease and death.


The WHO’s sole task is to promote effective public health policy in all regions of the world, yet it has been captured by absurd groupthink and is wasting its taxpayer funding on trivial first world prejudices to the detriment of global health, especially in the developing world. One must wonder at the sick mentality of WHO management and staff who believe it is a good idea to inflict untold deaths on the world’s population just to make a political statement.



BLOGS:

Monday: Taxpayers Protection Alliance Announces Director of Tech Policy ([link removed])


Tuesday: The World Health Organization’s Puerile Squabbles Will Cause Untold Deaths ([link removed])


Wednesday: Postal service should let consumers show solidarity with Ukraine ([link removed])


Thursday: Government Watchdog Responds to Gas Stimulus Proposal ([link removed])


Friday: Watchdog Slams Biden Administration for IP Agreement Jeopardizing Future Life Saving Innovation ([link removed])


Media:

March 18, 2022: Townhall.com ([link removed]) ran TPA’s op-ed, “Despite Bloomberg’s Billions Fooling You, Harm Reduction Mustn’t Only Be Applied to America’s Opioid Epidemic ([link removed]) .”


March 18, 2022: The Center Square ran TPA’s op-ed, “California appeals court sets bad precedent on state’s net neutrality law ([link removed]) .”


March 19, 2022: The Times Observer (Warren, Pa.) ran TPA’s op-ed, “Windfall tax worsens dilemma ([link removed]) .”

March 20, 2022: The Santa Barbara Press News (Santa Barbara, Calif.) ran TPA’s op-ed, “Oil windfall tax isn’t the answer ([link removed]) .”


March 21, 2022: WBFF Fox45 (Baltimore, Md.) interviewed me about the windfall profit tax ([link removed]) .


March 21, 2022: The Center Square ran TPA’s op-ed, “Postal service should let consumers show solidarity with Ukraine ([link removed]) .”


March 22, 2022: Townhall.com ([link removed]) ran TPA’s op-ed, “The World Health Organization’s Puerile Squabbles Will Cause Untold Deaths ([link removed]) .”


March 22, 2022: The Georgia Virtue ran TPA’s op-ed, “Oil Windfall Tax Makes A Bad Situation Worse ([link removed]) .”


March 22, 2022: The Kansas Reflector mentioned TPA in their article, “U.S. Rep. Davids backs legislation to avoid insider trading by members of Congress ([link removed]) .”


March 23, 2022: Inside Sources ran TPA’s op-ed, “Center for Tobacco Products Needs Reforms, Not More Authority.” ([link removed])


March 23, 2022: Dan Savickas joined The Barrett Brief (New Orleans, La.) to discuss cybersecurity issues for consumers.


March 24, 2022: WBFF Fox45 (Baltimore, Md.) quoted TPA in their story, “Cherry Hill woman afraid of violence, critical of Safe Streets: 'It's really scary' ([link removed]) .”


March 24, 2022: Broadband Breakfast mentioned Patrick Hedger in their story, “Platform Product Preference Bill Unfairly Targets Large Online Platforms, CCIA Says ([link removed]) .”


March 24, 2022: WBFF Fox45 (Baltimore, Md.) interviewed me about cyber security issues for taxpayers and consumers.


March 24, 2022: I appeared on WBOB 600 AM (Jacksonville, Fla.) to talk about oil prices and wasteful spending.


March 24, 2022: I appeared on 96.7 FM Powertalk (Fresno, Calif.) to talk about Congress’ plan to send stimulus checks to buy gas.


March 24, 2022: WBFF Fox45 (Baltimore, Md.) interviewed me about Congress’ plan to send stimulus checks to buy gas.


March 24, 2022: Issues & Insights ran TPA’s op-ed, “FCC Aims to Improve Rural Health Care Program.” ([link removed])
Have a great weekend!
Best,

David Williams
President
Taxpayers Protection Alliance
1101 14th Street, NW
Suite 1120
Washington, D.C. xxxxxx
www.protectingtaxpayers.org ([link removed])

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