Underfunding the IRS is not a neutral act but a policy choice that disproportionately benefits the rich. Auditing complex, high-value returns requires significant resources. A weakened IRS cannot effectively pursue wealthy tax evaders, creating a massive "tax gap" that functions as a stealth tax cut for the top earners.

The biggest tax cut isn't a legislative change but rather neutering the IRS's budget. The agency lacks the resources to audit the complex finances of the wealthy, incentivizing aggressive tax strategies and leaving hundreds of billions in legally owed taxes uncollected each year.

Senator Booker highlights a Congressional Budget Office finding that significant tax cheating occurs at high income levels. Simply enforcing existing tax laws by adequately staffing the IRS to audit complex returns from the wealthy could recover tens of billions of dollars for the government.

While AI will improve IRS efficiency in collecting taxes from typical wage earners, it struggles with the bespoke, complex tax shelters used by the ultra-wealthy. This creates a perverse outcome where enforcement becomes tougher on the masses while the wealthiest continue to exploit loopholes.

Contrary to common belief, Arthur Laffer asserts that historical data shows a clear pattern: every time the highest tax rates on top earners were raised, the government collected less tax revenue from them. The wealthy use legal means to avoid taxes, and economic activity declines, ultimately harming the broader economy.

The gutting of the IRS is not an ideological choice but a symptom of a fiscal crisis. With unmanageable debt, politicians cannibalize institutions for short-term electoral gain, as traditional tax enforcement can no longer solve the core problem.

Tax enforcement agencies should be reframed not as a burden, but as a domestic army. Just as a military protects a nation's assets from foreign threats, the IRS protects the public's wealth from being completely absorbed by a domestic billionaire class. Defunding the IRS is thus an act of unilateral disarmament in this class struggle.

Instead of focusing on changing the tax code, the most significant tax benefit for the ultra-wealthy has come from systematically cutting the IRS budget. This prevents the agency from auditing complex returns, effectively making the wealthy 'protected by the law, but not bound by it,' and creating a massive enforcement gap.

When a political party uses the IRS to punish enemies, it simultaneously shields its wealthy allies from audits. This allows them to evade taxes, creating a revenue gap. To fund the government, that money must be collected from lower and middle-income taxpayers, effectively creating a tax increase for them.