To the Editor:
Re “I.R.S. Fires 6,700 Employees Amid Busy Tax Filing Season” (information article, Feb. 21) and “Gutting the I.R.S. Is Fiscally Irresponsible,” by seven former I.R.S. commissioners (Opinion visitor essay, Feb. 24):
I used to be glad to see this group of former I.R.S. commissioners, appointed by Republican and Democratic presidents alike, condemn the firing of 1000’s of the company’s workers within the midst of tax season, when practically 200 million taxpayers can be submitting their returns. However calling it a “enormous mistake” is an understatement. It’s insanity.
Each forms of 100,000 folks can at all times be made extra environment friendly. The I.R.S., beneath the ready route of one of many authors, the lately departed commissioner, Daniel Werfel, has already made main strides on this route.
Using funds made accessible within the 2022 Inflation Discount Act, the company is within the strategy of updating its antiquated legacy laptop methods and creating a contemporary data expertise setting. Synthetic intelligence applied sciences are being launched. Taxpayers are noticing considerably improved ranges of customer support. However all of this progress will grind to a halt if Elon Musk and his enforcers proceed with their plan to eradicate 1000’s of priceless workers.
Most vital, slicing the I.R.S. price range will injury the realm with probably the most potential for income: tax enforcement. I.R.S. research have rigorously documented that about $700 billion per yr (and rising) is being misplaced by way of tax evasion, largely by upper-income taxpayers. Over the following 10 years this “tax hole” will quantity to $7 to $8 trillion in misplaced income.
One other of the essay’s authors, the previous commissioner Charles Rossotti, has finished groundbreaking work in analyzing this tax hole and has testified earlier than Congress on the steps that may and have to be taken to start shrinking this surprising lack of income.
A unbroken funding in expertise, together with synthetic intelligence, will assist make this attainable. Indiscriminate firing of 1000’s of I.R.S. workers will do the other.
Alexander R.M. Boyle
Chevy Chase, Md.
The author is a retired vice chairman of Chevy Chase Financial institution and a member of the management council on the Tax Coverage Heart.
To the Editor:
The previous I.R.S. commissioners are right, after all, that firings on the tax company will scale back collections of unpaid taxes, which is able to successfully improve the nation’s deficit. What they don’t observe is that the lowered collections are a function, not a bug, of the I.R.S. layoffs.
In line with a 2021 report by the Treasury Department, Individuals within the prime 1 p.c by annual revenue account for about 28 p.c of misplaced tax income — greater than $160 billion per yr. President Trump needs to cut back taxes for the wealthiest Individuals. A method to do that is to chop their tax charges. One other is to cut back the workers that investigates after they don’t pay even at these charges.
Jeff Burger
Ridgewood, N.J.
The Jan. 6 Insurrectionists
To the Editor:
Re “After Trump’s Pardon, Picking Up the Pieces With a ‘J6’ Identity” (entrance web page, Feb. 24):
I’m in my 70s and have lived a remarkably strange life: going to high school, working, taking good care of my household, paying my taxes on time. I’ve by no means damaged the regulation, besides for 2 dashing tickets about 50 years in the past.
At my age, I’m purported to have gained some knowledge, however for the lifetime of me, I’m unable to understand how the Jan. 6 insurrectionists can see themselves as victims.
They broke right into a constructing, inflicting bodily injury, ignored the orders of the people answerable for securing the premises, assaulted the police and different safety personnel and induced a number of deaths and severe accidents. They did all this in fealty to the present president, at the same time as they threatened the lifetime of Mike Pence, who was then the vice chairman.
Nobody pressured these folks to breach the Capitol, invading the Senate flooring and the workplaces of legislators whereas workers members cowered in worry. These criminals didn’t go away the premises till President Trump despatched them his love and requested them to go residence. Regulation-abiding residents like me watched all of this exercise in horror, reside on tv.
For his or her prison exercise, the insurrectionists acquired blanket presidential pardons.
Since Donald Trump entered the political enviornment, American life has turn into incomprehensible.
Stephanie Nicholas Acquadro
Westfield, N.J.
King Trump?
To the Editor:
Re “Trump Aims to End Congestion Plan, Setting Up a Fight” (entrance web page, Feb. 20):
When the founders convened in Philadelphia in 1787 to jot down the Structure, they wished america to be a nation of legal guidelines, and no individual, even the president, might be above them.
The Time magazine-inspired picture of President Trump depicted as a king that was distributed by the White Home lately alongside along with his proclamation about New York’s congestion pricing would have horrified previous presidents: George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, males who had fought tirelessly to ascertain a brand new sort of presidency through which the authority rests with the folks, not a monarch.
President Trump and the G.O.P. have made a mockery of that historical past — and our justice system, too.
Gary L. Adler
Lynbrook, N.Y.
To the Editor:
Re “Kennedy Center Challenge: Funding” (Arts, Feb. 20):
Why ought to fund-raising be an issue? President Trump may very effectively appoint himself chairman of the Nationwide Endowment for the Arts and grant the Kennedy Heart its full $268 million price range. Once you’re king, nothing is past your attain.
Karen Cooper
New York
The author was director of Movie Discussion board from 1972 to 2023.
Turning to Gun Possession
To the Editor:
Re “Moment They Knew It Was Time to Own a Gun” (entrance web page, Feb. 20):
It is a very upsetting story. Extra Individuals from more and more various backgrounds are turning to weapons to cope with the threats they face or suppose they face from different Individuals.
However the supply that underlies these disparate causes to purchase firearms is anxiousness — the increased anxiety in America that outcomes from the three disturbing “I”s of up to date life on this nation: inequality, insecurity and instability.
Analysis finds that when individuals are anxious, they discover solace in seemingly easy solutions, like perception in conspiracy theories, and the sense {that a} gun can shield them from unfamiliar, threatening forces within the exterior and their inner world.
Weapons can not remedy what ails us as folks; the reply is larger consideration to particular person psychology and psychological well being, however the nation fails to take a position sufficient resources on mental health, and the funds will probably drop considerably with the Trump administration’s cutbacks on the Nationwide Institutes of Well being.
And extra Individuals will purchase weapons that may kill different Individuals.
Richard M. Perloff
Cleveland
The author is a professor of communication, psychology and political science at Cleveland State College.
