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 term "estate tax" or "death tax" has been successfully demonized, making it politically toxic. Economist Gary Stevenson suggests rebranding it as a "hoarding tax" to shift the focus from a penalty on death to a check on the excessive, socially-damaging accumulation of wealth well beyond what any family could ever need.

Congressman Ro Khanna proposes a tax on the total net worth of individuals with over $100 million. Unlike an income or capital gains tax, this targets unrealized wealth, forcing the liquidation of assets like stocks to generate the cash needed to pay the tax.

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.

Billionaire wealth is largely illiquid and tied to asset values. A large-scale wealth tax would force mass sales, crashing the market value of those assets. The money is only 'there' on paper until you try to actually collect it, at which point its value collapses.

The proposed tax on billionaires' assets isn't about the billionaires themselves, who hold a fraction of national wealth. The real goal is to establish the legal precedent for a private property tax. Once normalized, this mechanism can be extended to the middle class, where the vast majority of assets reside.

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.

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.