Trump and the IRS: All Politics

Trump and the IRS: All Politics

                        Robert A. Levine   April 29. 2025

For a man whose companies have been convicted on multiple charges of criminal tax fraud, for falsifying records to evade taxes, and found guilty on 17 counts, it seems preposterous for Trump to go after his enemies using the IRS to try and ferret out discrepancies in their tax returns. There were also civil cases of Trump defrauding banks where he was found guilty and ordered to pay $350 million, plus accrued interest of about $100 million. Trump does not care about his convictions and various fines for he can sell his MAGA hats, jerseys, medallions and other Trump paraphernalia to a host of MAGA supporters who disregarded Trump’s fraudulent criminal activities and bankruptcies and elected him president. Now the Supreme Court has granted him partial immunity for anything he does in his role as president. One of his major goals is to take revenge on anyone who disrespected him in the past or opposed his initiatives. He also wants to assure tax cuts for all his billionaire friends.

His first move in terms of taxes was to gut the IRS so they would not have enough personnel to audit every potential tax cheat. 20,000 IRS staffers, about 20 percent of its workforce, were cut, including the acting commissioner Musk had recently appointed. Trump’s team is now considering even further reductions to make audits even less feasible. Auditing more returns to find fraud or mistakes to get more money to cut the national debt has not been a consideration for Trump. He is hoping that his tariffs will bring in more funds to the government to reduce the debt, perhaps a dream of his. He doesn’t give a damn about the effect the tariffs will have on consumers by raising prices on almost everything or the small business that will have to close because they can’t afford to buy merchandise from China with tariffs added.

Trump wants to use the IRS as a political tool instead of an independent agency respected by America’s citizens regardless of party affiliation. In replacing some of the people he fired, he is trying to install political allies who will do his bidding in terms of going after his personal and political adversaries. As an example of his thinking, he wants to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status, which Trump sees as a privilege and not a right. If he is successful in this attempt, he will undoubtedly go after other universities, and perhaps NGOs whose objectives he disagrees with, such as DEI and civil rights initiatives.

According to Federal law, the president cannot direct the IRS to execute specific tax investigations, and the IRS is in the process of deciding whether to move forward with the Harvard case. If Americans of both political parties believe that the IRS is being politicized instead of neutral and fair, and its tax enforcement is being weakened, it may have more difficulty collecting revenue from American citizens. This would make the national debt even more of a problem and further undermine the dollar as the preferred international currency. Trump appears to be blind to the crises his policies are causing for the American economy and the majority of American citizens. As long as his billionaire friends are doing okay.

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The War on Science Continues

The War on Science Continues

                        Robert A. Levine   April 15, 2025

Under President Trump’s astute guidance, the federal government is working to destroy support for scientific research in all fields, ceding control of innovation and scientific advances to China. The People’s Republic of China produces significant multiples of STEM scientists than the U.S. and we are in the process of deporting foreign scientists and making our nation hostile to immigrants with scientific backgrounds. Actually, all immigrants.

Federal funding has been cut to universities that conduct most of our scientific research, forcing the universities to curb the studies being done and dismissing scientific personnel, both foreign and domestic. In addition, federal agencies and departments are firing scientific personnel and cutting back on the research that was under way or planned for the future by federal agencies. Much of this is under the direction of Elon Musk and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. In addition, HHS, The Department of Health and Human Services under Robert Kennedy Jr, is slicing his department by 20,000 personnel, from 82,000 to 60,000 or below.

HHS includes the (NIH) National Institutes of Health, the (CDC) Communicable Disease Center, and the (FDA) Federal Drug Administration under its control. The HHS is supposed to research all diseases and methods of prevention. However, the CDC and Kennedy failed miserably to blunt the measles epidemic mainly in Texas and New Mexico by convincing residents of these states to take the measles vaccine. Meanwhile, DOGE and Musk fired workers at the NIH whose research concentrated on Alzheimer’s and other dementias, a major problem in the U.S. with our aging population.

NOAA, which predicts the weather and any devastating storms that may hit the U.S. has also taken major cuts in personnel. Besides early warning for Americans of hurricanes and tornadoes, NOAA’s information is also necessary to ensure safety in aviation. NOAA does research on weather patterns and has done some research on climate change, a topic that’s forbidden on Trump’s agenda. In fact, all work on climate change by federal agencies has been discontinued, as Trump has claimed that global warming is a hoax. It is surprising that Musk, who is a scientist himself and knows about the dangers of global warming, has not spoken up and made Trump understand the dangers that climate change presents to America and the world. Personnel have also been dismissed from the EPA- Environmental Protection Agency. This agency is responsible for monitoring industrial plants, oil wells and pipelines along with any other facilities responsible for polluting the environment, particularly with substances that can be dangerous to human health.

Musk also shut down USAID, the United States Agency for International Development. Though this agency’s major goal is to provide medical and other assistance to nations that have epidemics or have suffered disasters, it also conducts some research on diseases. USAID was a projection of America’s soft power of which Trump and Musk are apparently ignorant.

The Department of Education is also being shut down. This federal department sets standards for education in science as well as other subjects. Currently, American students lag almost all advanced nations in international tests of reading, math and science. The Department of Education should be getting more personnel instead of being closed to make sure that all the states are meeting the standards in major subjects. We need more and more proficient students in STEM subjects if we hope to keep up with China. Trump’s moves so far are handing China leadership in science on a silver platter. This cannot be good for America.

www.robertlevinebooks.com

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