What’s happening: The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), in a new expedition approved by President Donald Trump, is investigating possible waste, fraud, and abuse inside Americans’ least favorite agency: the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

  • The coming storm: As many as 15,000 probationary workers who have not yet gained tenure are expected to be axed from the agency.

  • Flashback: President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 hired 87,000 additional IRS employees, doubling its workforce. These agents have been used to conduct audits on individual Americans and small businesses at historic rates.

Data access: A 25-year-old DOGE staffer named Gavin Klinger is reportedly soon to gain access to the IRS’ database that contains sensitive tax information for millions of Americans.

  • Foreign fraud rings: White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller claimed DOGE could uncover the full scope of foreign fraud rings, wherein foreigners “use fake Social Security numbers…to steal billions in taxpayer benefits.”

Pushback: Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) warned that DOGE’s involvement in the IRS audit could delay taxpayer refunds and expose personal data. Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-CA), a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, which oversees the IRS, described the move as "an illegal and blatant power grab," adding, “This is a five-alarm warning.”

The big picture: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (whose department oversees the IRS) stated he had three goals for the IRS: “collections, privacy, and customer service” and said the administration was “going to do a big IT upgrade.”

What’s next: DOGE has just created an account on X called “DOGE IRS” and asked the public to send “insights on finding and fixing waste, fraud and abuse relating to the Internal Revenue Service.”

Why it matters: The IRS could be responsible for massive amounts of money being wasted. If Musk and DOGE are successful in uncovering waste and eliminating it, it could help to re-instill critically low trust in government.

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Bob Tasker1 year ago

The Democrats are enraged because Musk is unveiling their secret slush funds (did USAID really fund some of the law suits against Trump?). Their only response seems to be spewing profanity laced hate speech. Who in their right minds could defend paying social security to 150 year olds. Further, it appears that there are more SS numbers active than there are citizens. Any right (i.e. honest) thinking person should applaud and support DOGE. Bob Tasker

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Sherrie Johnson 1 year ago

Right On, it’s frightening to see how many democrats are fighting to stop Doge from auditing the federal government, cutting waste & fraud wonder why???? Follow the money… Sherrie Johnson

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Joel Williams1 year ago

The bureaucracy has always had access to our sensitive information, so why they are making such a fuss when someone else in the bureaucracy wants to investigate? The old bureaucracy wants to keep their money and information racket running to enrich themselves and their friends.

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Jim Harmon1 year ago

Perhaps one of the biggest wastes is the money it takes to pay an additional 87,000 employees. I think that assigning them to audit taxpayers was a blatant attack on people and businesses. So, how many in Congress get audited? Abuse? Recouping the back taxes of those in Congress would be step in the right direction.

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sharon smith1 year ago

Why did the Biden admin. feel it was necessary to hire hundreds more IRS agents... and arm them? Was it to intimidate the Middle Class or were they going after the wealthiest of our citizens in a show of strength against them, while paying out millions to the millions of immigrants crossing our borders illegaly? The past 4 yrs has been like a sinister, B-movie and

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Kevin Sargent1 year ago

WTF?? Publicly traded companies MUST be professionally audited and the results publicly posted. What's the Most "publicly traded" entity in the U.S.? THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT!! Every Taxpayer has a Strong interest in transparency, accountability and audit results! The "what have you got to hide?" line is trite, but Totally applicable here!

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Jim Powers1 year ago

The IRS could be easily cleaned up with a flat sales tax. Everyone pays the same tax when they spend, instead of getting taxed on income to later be taxed on spending. No more deductions, just a flat tax. Once that change is made, the entire department could be shut down.

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Stephen Winsor1 year ago

No one should have any issue with auditing the IRS. We all heard about the fraud and lost money with the COVID funding. I bet there is a mountain of fraud in the IRS, and we have been giving money away to all sorts of foreign actors.

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Rich Henke1 year ago

Maybe DOJ should be looking into the finances of those squawking the loudest about DOGE. Could it be that their worried about being held accountable for perpetrating the fraud that’s being uncovered?

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