Privatization Kills: Tax Edition

Don't ever let anyone get away with saying that private business does a better job than the government at lower prices.  The truth is precisely the opposite.  Privatization is why everything government does is shoddy and useless, and privatization is why we pay way too much money for it.

The solution is to outlaw private contractors and start hiring the millions of local, state and federal employees who will have real incentives to serve the public.

Dok Zoom at Wonkette:

In other exciting news of how Trump’s IRS is fucking up, ThinkProgress reports the IRS hired private collection agencies to go after low-income Americans who owe the government small amounts of unpaid tax and penalties. It was a huge success in the way that only a bureaucracy could love:

[The] debt collectors had cost the IRS $20 million but had only brought in $6.7 million — less than one percent of the total amount targeted for collection. In some cases, the private agencies received commissions for work they hadn’t actually carried out.

We bet that $7 million really helped put a dent in the $450 billion in unpaid taxes owed by Americans. Of course, maybe it’s a teensy bit of a problem that instead of going after tax cheats who owe large amounts, the collection agencies did what they do best, shaking down people making less than the national median income. A quarter of the households targeted for collections had incomes under 250 percent of the federal poverty level — which by coincidence is pretty much the definition of “low income.”

You will not be the least bit surprised to learn that despite the dismal outcome, the IRS plans to continue using private collection agencies, because the practice was pushed by congressional Republicans. And yes, when Mnuchin was asked about the use of private debt collectors during his confirmation hearings, he replied, “it seems like a very obvious thing to do.”

As for the IRS using IRS agents to go after any of the rich fuckwads avoiding taxes, don’t hold your breath — the agency’s lost a fifth of its funding since 2010, and has been targeted for further budget cuts, because EVERYONE hates the IRS.