‘It’s a Heist’: Real Federal Auditors Are Horrified by DOGE | WIRED

"You can't coherently audit something like the whole Social Security system in a week or two," says the second auditor. It's exactly this rush to crack systems open without full understanding, the auditors say, that has led to Elon Musk's false claims that 150-year-olds were receiving Social Security benefits. "It could be that DOGE didn't de-dupe the data." 

"In no uncertain terms is this an audit," claims the second auditor. "It's a heist, stealing a vast amount of government data."…

https://www.wired.com/story/federal-auditors-doge-elon-musk/

 

Opinion | First order of business for the GOP House? Defunding the (tax) police - The Washington Post

In recent weeks, high-level Republicans have said their top legislative priority is clawing back the $80 billion that Democrats recently appropriated to the Internal Revenue Service over the next decade. About half of this money will go toward beefing up enforcement; the rest for other functions such as improving customer service and modernizing the agency's embarrassingly decrepit IT systems…

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/01/05/first-task-for-gop-house-defunding-tax-police/

No, these photos don’t show an IRS training class - PolitiFact

IRS Criminal Investigation is a division of the IRS, and its agents have been armed for more than a century. These federal employees also aren't the typical auditors that Americans facing routine audits will encounter. The notorious gangster Al Capone, for example, was investigated by the division, then called the Intelligence Unit, and later convicted on tax evasion charges. More recently, criminal investigation agents have been part of a task force tracking down the assets of Russian oligarchs…

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/aug/19/facebook-posts/no-these-photos-dont-show-irs-training-class/

Armed... auditors? The IRS becomes the latest target of GOP misinformation

Some Republicans have spread false information about how new funds will be used by IRS, stoking outrage and alarming experts…

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/19/irs-republicans-target-misinformation

Rick Scott Warns Job Seekers Against Applying To IRS | HuffPost Latest News

The Florida Republican says "this will be a short-term gig" because Republicans will try to hobble the agency if they win back control of Congress...

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/irs-biden-rick-scott_n_62fbe25fe4b0c8c57f56c24a

Republicans condemn 87,000 IRS agents who don’t (and won’t) exist

Republicans are so outraged by renewed efforts to enforce existing tax laws, they're telling some rather brazen lies about the Inflation Reduction Act...

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/republicans-condemn-87000-irs-agents-dont-wont-exist-rcna42626

Conservatives tee off on Biden for pushing to bolster IRS - POLITICO

"A massive, bipartisan, majority of the American people support making the richest Americans and biggest corporations pay the taxes they owe — without increasing the rate of audits on any people or small business owners earning less than $400,000 a year — so we can use that money to invest in the middle class," White House spokesperson Mike Gwin said. "A few special interest-funded ads won't change that fact or a single mind."

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/05/24/conservatives-biden-irs-hiring-490479