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Floor Speech

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Mr. WYDEN. Madam President.

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Mr. WYDEN. The fact, however, is the effect of this proposal is to demean IRS workers and distract from the real challenges facing the IRS. And the real challenge can be embodied by the fact that, for years and years, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have been squeezing and downsizing critical enforcement services at the IRS to the point where the wealthy cheats basically can get a free ride. They can get a free ride.

About the other day, in the context of talking about tax cheats and wealthy partnerships that aren't getting audited, I said the chance that they are going to be subject to real enforcement, when they are a wealthy tax cheat, is about the same likelihood of being hit by a meteor, and it is because of these policies that have been downsizing resources at the IRS to deal with these wealthy tax cheats for years.

Now, Commissioner Rettig, who is a Trump appointee--an appointee of former President Trump--recently said there are fewer auditors to deal with these wealthy tax cheats today than at any point since World War II.

So they have got that challenge, and then they have an enormous IT challenge because the IRS, by their admission, is still using some systems that are practically dated back to the Dark Ages.

According to the National Taxpayer Advocate, during the last fiscal year, the IRS received a record 282 million customer service phone calls and, with limited staff, was only able to answer 11 percent of them. Commissioner Rettig told the Finance Committee, in a remarkable statement, that it was his opinion that the amount of taxes that go unpaid each year could now be as high as a trillion dollars.

To just wrap up, I want to describe how this all is connected. My colleagues on the other side of the aisle have repeatedly attacked the IRS. They cut, they squeeze, and they have constantly reduced the IRS budget. Wealthy tax cheats are out basically celebrating the decline of real tax enforcement. Law-abiding Americans--the vast majority of Americans--are, of course, frustrated by the declining customer service.

So then we have our colleagues on the other side of the aisle attack the IRS, and the cycle just repeats: more cuts, less enforcement targeted to wealthy tax cheats, and, unfortunately, inadequate customer service. That has been the pattern now for decades.

In my view, this is a gift to tax cheats and an annual headache for just about everyone else.

There is no question the pandemic--and this has been true for every aspect of government--has brought new challenges, just like it has for every business, every school, every government agency around the country. And, in my view, instead of misplacing what the target really ought to be, which is inadequate resources so we can't go after the wealthy tax cheats, somehow we are hearing that it is the workers, these union members, who are at fault. That is not my take.

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