Discussion for article #235255
I read elsewhere that if you have a problem with taxes…don’t blame the IRS, blame Congress.
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Or the voters. Take your pick.
Edit: Or the democratic voters that can’t get off their asses to vote in the midterms.
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I watched it. It was funny. John is absolutely correct, the IRS does what congress tells them to. Congress blaming the IRS for the burdensome issues with taxes is like blaming the oven for over baking the chicken.
Keep in mind, the republicans are only happy when government is broken. When it is working to make our country better or to help individual citizens the republicans are screaming about welfare queens, fraud, waste and abuse. And, believe me, they know all about waste, fraud and abuse!
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My brother was an IRS agent for 35 years (R.I.P.)
He got so tired of the hate he just told people he “worked for the Treasury Dept.” which of course was true before the monstrosity of the DHS was created.
He retired early because of the staff cuts, frozen wages, inadequate facilities and equipment, and ridiculous restrictions on their attempts at investigating tax fraud (corporate in his case.)
Boy did he have some stories. I liked the one where he went out to check on an Ethanol plant in Oklahoma that was claiming big tax breaks. When he got there it was closed and no one was around so he started walking around the outside fence of facility taking pictures. Then 4 sheriffs cars screamed up and was arrested for “taking pictures of a building without consent”.
He showed them his badge (and gun) and still got “taken in as a precaution” and they took his camera.
Curiously, they held him for 4 hours and when he finally got out to get back to the plant, It was all running with 20 employees there who all claimed they “always worked there every day.” He never did get his camera back.
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The funniest part of this sad story may be how far Michael Bolton has fallen that he’s reduced to doing comedy gigs rather than concert tours. He must need the money as I doubt he’s otherwise this politically conscious.
(Please ignore this if Bolton is indeed a big contributor to liberal causes other than follicle research.)
I had no idea who he was before this article, but this is what his Wiki page says about his charity work. He seems to have been involved with a number of Domestic Abuse and Child Labor charity organizations.
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Funding the government is only a small part of what the IRS does (or is supposed to do). They are the front line defense against money laundering due to government corruption, organized crime, and even terrorism, not to mention tax evasion and illegal political activities. Try living in a country without an effective tax department. It’s grim.
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Democrats want the government to be trusted to do things, need money to pay for it … blaming IRS is a libertarian game.
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Actually, Michael Bolton seems to truly enjoy working on things like this and the Lonely Isle pieces he’s done. The man can definitely take a poke at his own image, and smile about it.
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I felt like this edition showed how hard it is to do weekly interesting, funny, in-depth investigative reports. Sort of obvious, not that funny, not that interesting.
Some good points there. Will not change much though. The IRS is too good a straw man.
The basketball segment was probably the weakest … this one is basically obligatory given the season & I think many don’t really think about this issue, so not sure how obvious it is. The material was fairly basic, but professional. You can’t have “don’t be a maybe” each time!
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Tip 'o the hat to your remark about those who don’t vote. I’ve always considered voting to be a necessary part of being a citizen. If I live want to comment/complain.get activist…it’s incumbent that I vote. Otherwise I have no call to beyatch about what I see that is wrong with our government.
He promised something that was worth the wait … thinking sexy … not Michael Bolton!
There’s obviously some serious corruption going on in that Oklahoma locality. Reminds me of the rural area where I grew up.
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I find it ironic that the cuts to the IRS come directly from the same party that swears our budget overruns will turn us into Greece.
If someone wants to turn us into Greece, the best way to do it is to kill the IRS.
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Fine, GOP; how are we going to fund your wars then?