Share
Commentary

Massie Reveals Photos of IRS Recruiting Program, Looks Like Audition for Next 'Police Academy'

Share

President Joe Biden took a few hours between vacations on Tuesday to sign the ironically named “Inflation Reduction Act,” a boondoggle of a bill that analysts agree will not reduce inflation. It will, however, raise taxes on the middle class and subsidize green energy programs.

The bill will also dramatically expand the scope and size of the IRS. In fact, it increases IRS funding by $80 billion over the next 10 years, an increase of roughly 60 percent over its current annual budget of $13.7 billion, and adds 87,000 new auditors to its ranks. Given that the IRS has been stockpiling weapons in recent years, buying up $700,000 in ammunition this year alone, this truly gives new meaning to the phrase “weaponization of U.S. institutions.”

Although there was virtually no Republican support for this reckless legislation in either the Senate or the House, Biden touted the new law as proof that “democracy still works in America.” Right.

Following Biden’s over the top victory lap, Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie took a shot at Democrats by tweeting photos from two IRS recruiting programs, one from 2017 and the other held earlier this year (prior to the passage of the IRA).

The photographs, taken during IRS “Adrian Project” events that AFP said have been going on for almost 20 years, were obviously unrelated to recruitment efforts that began after the passage of the IRA, but Massie’s post nevertheless went viral on social media as many Americans saw their tax dollars at work in this program for the first time.

Related:
Priceless: Watch Trump's IRS Pick Troll Tax-and-Spend Reps by Auctioning the National Debt

Last week, Fox Business reported on an online job posting for “Criminal Investigation Special Agents” for the law enforcement branch of the IRS. According to Fox, one of the “key requirements” was that an applicant be “legally allowed to carry a firearm,” and “major duties” included “Carry a firearm and be willing to use deadly force, if necessary” and “Be willing and able to participate in arrests, execution of search warrants and other dangerous assignments.”

Should the IRS get this budget increase?

Needless to say, the requirement that applicants “be willing to use deadly force, if necessary” went viral on social media.

Fox noted that “a link to the job posting … appeared to have been briefly deleted on Wednesday, following online criticism of the posting’s language, though it reappeared back online after a FOX Business inquiry to the agency.”

But the new posting omits the requirement that candidates “be willing to use deadly force, if necessary.”

An IRS representative told Fox, “The IRS Criminal Investigation special agent job announcement continues to be open on USAJobs and has not/was not taken down. USAJobs is where these positions are posted and where applicants are referred to in order to apply. … The announcement has been opened since February 2022 and continues through Dec. 31, 2022.”

The annual expenditure of $8 billion to sic 87,000 more IRS auditors on American taxpayers is an outrage. The requirement that the new auditors be comfortable with firearms, however, takes it to a whole new level.

Biden sees the new law as proof that “democracy still works in America,” but many Americans see just the opposite.

CORRECTION, Aug. 19, 2022: There were two aspects of this commentary that may have been inadvertently misleading to some readers when it was first published. First, we wrote of the Inflation Reduction Act that “it increases IRS funding by $80 billion, nearly six times its current annual budget of $13.7 billion.” We failed to note, however, that that increase is over the next 10 years, so it actually represents not a sixfold increase in the IRS budget but more like a 60% increase — still healthy, obviously, but not so much as we implied. We have corrected that statement.

Second, while we included a link to the 2017 source of some of the pictures shared by Rep. Massie, we failed to call attention clearly in the commentary to the fact that the pictures he shared were not of training that had been specifically funded by the additional IRS budget appropriation included in the IRA. That may have led some readers to believe that the photographs were the direct result of the IRA’s becoming law, which is not the case. Other pictures were from a similar event earlier this year, which also took place prior to the passage of the IRA, and we should have called that out as well.

Truth and Accuracy

Submit a Correction →



We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.

Tags:
, , , , ,
Share
Elizabeth writes commentary for The Western Journal and The Washington Examiner. Her articles have appeared on many websites, including MSN, RedState, Newsmax, The Federalist and RealClearPolitics. Please follow Elizabeth on Twitter or LinkedIn.
Elizabeth is a contract writer at The Western Journal. Her articles have appeared on many conservative websites including RedState, Newsmax, The Federalist, Bongino.com, HotAir, MSN and RealClearPolitics.

Please follow Elizabeth on Twitter.




Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.

Conversation