Daniel Savickas of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance writes about why the IRS’s track record should make us hesitant to grant it more power:

Once a return is filed, the bad news continues for lower-income filers. Publicly available data show that the IRS disproportionately targets poorer communities for increased audit scrutiny. Shamefully, this scrutiny is also heavily directed at minority communities. The IRS neither denies nor repudiates these trends. In fact, IRS commissioner Charles Rettig has described auditing poor Americans who claim the Earned Income Tax Credit as “the most efficient use of available IRS examination resources.” Now, the IRS has more resources to keep struggling Americans in the crosshairs.
Rettig and the IRS further rationalize these practices by claiming it is easier to audit disadvantaged communities. It costs less, requires fewer staffers, and takes up less time because these particular demographics do not have the resources to fight back with any seriousness. Simply put, the IRS is a bully with the entire apparatus of the federal government (and billions of taxpayer dollars) at its back.

Read the whole thing here.