The Right’s Mantra: Lie, lie, and lie about the lies
Fact check #1: The anti-IRS agenda
One of the GOP’s favorite lies of late - about the IRS hiring “87,000 new agents”- was debunked as soon as Kevin McCarthy tweeted it last August.
That didn’t stop Republicans from bringing up the lie in the leadup to the midterm elections and during the first weeks of their control over the US House of Representatives.
The truth: The IRS plans to hire 86,852 employees over a period of 10 years to replace retiring personnel, expand their IT offices (not agents), modernize the agency, and bring up the total IRS staff to what it was more than a decade ago. Since 2010, there’s been a 17% reduction in total IRS staff.
· Replace 52,000 retiring IRS employees over the next 6-10 years just to maintain current staffing levels
· Add 5,000 customer service representatives who deal directly with the public
· Increase total staff from 79,000 to 113,000 over 10 years
The part of the Inflation Reduction Act that allocated basic …
