Cutting money to the only government agency that can actually turn a decent profit, in order to save money. How very republican.
USPS
turnsmight turn a profit now that the ridiculous rules that republicans put in to try to bankrupt it have been revoked.Wait, really?
https://apwu.org/postal-service-reform-act-2022
There is proof that we fixed it.
Here is an analysis done in 2019 that says that stupid requirement was the only reason the USPS hadn’t been profitable since 2006 when the republicans originally passed the crap.
https://ips-dc.org/how-congress-manufactured-a-postal-crisis-and-how-to-fix-it/
I’m unable to find profits, but they generated $77 billion in revenue for 2023
Know that I wasn’t doubting you, I just didn’t want to get my hopes up for nothing.
Here’s the next radical idea I’ve heard; have the post office offer simple banking services.
Wow, I had no idea that they actually fixed the problem that they created.
Sad that they’re still going to privatize it along with every other federal agency…
Hmm, I wonder if we could make a public business for auditing, and work with the IRS. Full transparency and stuff maybe. I don’t know how much work this is, but apparently there’s a bucket of money to be made for getting it back, just make it a percent amount of recovered funds?
Open to thoughts, or if this already exists - let me know.
To avoid the debt getting too large, let’s stop funding the agency that brings in the most income.
So, Republicans are no-so-quietly saying that everyone should cheat on their taxes, or is this just for the rich?
Always just for the rich. When they reduce IRS funding, they audit low hanging fruit because it’s much cheaper
I think game theory stipulates that everyone is wise to cheat on their taxes. The amount the average person usually end up paying in back taxes is less than the potential reward of getting away with it, jail time is almost unheard of, and the more people that cheat, the harder it is for them.
Not saying everyone should do it. But the only reason they have gone after people like Snipes and Stewart were to put the fear into everyday Americans.
You are correct and that’s an excellent demonstration of how fucking broken our tax system is. Notorious tax cheats like Trump should be in jail or be hit by fines many times over the discrepancy. Granted, our tax code is currently so convoluted (thanks Intuit I fucking hate you) that it’s extremely easy to accidentally make a tax error - we should adopt a system like Swedens’ of just precalculating taxes and allowing individuals to submit corrections but there’s a gigantic fucking industry that wants to keep shit as difficult as possible.
America has a lot of really deep problems tied to corruption and greed - UHC was recently highlighted but there are dozens of industries that exist parasitically that we should absolutely dismantle.
Unfortunately those industries have enough money to sway spinless politicians to their cause so getting rid of them is incredibly difficult.
Most of us are paid by a company, which is reported to irs. You can’t futz with that. People who get tipped, on the other hand …. There’s nothing but you conscience in the way. Or of course gig workers can play with what they write off, just like any other company. You know, it’s really only those of use paid a salary, whether hourly or annually, who have to follow the rules
Right, but when they go after people who fraudulently write things off (either intentionally or not), who do you think they go after? The gig worker, or the multi-millionaire with a stable of attorneys?
Depends… Tax evasion is super illegal, and you will go to prison for it (unless you can afford good attorneys, then maybe not). That is different than simply not paying your taxes, but good luck getting away with that.
It’s funny because the IRS was instrumental in a 300 pervert roundup by tracking Bitcoin transactions, some of them government workers. I wonder why they’d want to cut that.
lol if you think Republicans want to protect government workers
They just want to protect perverts
Also their financial advisors and investors have found a much easier way to hide money through crypto, so they can’t have the IRS being “inefficient” by going after unpaid taxes of the wealthy
The party super concerned about the debt is also the one who wants to defund their only source of income. Brilliant.
They feign concern about the national debt. For my entire lifetime they’ve done nothing but run up the debt.
They feign concern about the national debt.
Exactly. Government debt promotes wealth concentration: instead of paying tax, the rich lend their money, earning interest on it. They do not advocate for less government spending to “balance the books”, but to (a) make people more reliant on their employers and thus supress wages (“labour cost”) and (b) weaken the state agencies that check their power. I’m convinced every Republican threat of a government shutdown is a bluff.
As if by design…
But don’t worry. They’ll still have enough resources to go after ordinary people.
Realize the new tactic, trump admin will have the group of secondary goons fighting in public over multiple concepts, they’ll wait to see where public sentiment falls (or more likely how the money feels), and then trump will jump on the bandwagon and “punish” the face of the “losing” side as if he was for the “winning” side all along.
In the meantime, heritage foundation directed gop will use every second of the distraction to quietly pass bad law.
Examples:
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they just quietly defunded the department that tracks and reports on foreign propaganda efforts after musk just attacked it publicly link
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And they just gutted $20b from the IRS that could be used to audit millionaires and billionaires - the IRS famously brings in more money for every dollar funded into the service link
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Couldn’t have been accomplished without democrats
Not Republicans. Congress did. The bill only passed because of a bipartisan vote.
