During his first term, Donald Trump had a knack for choosing officials to run agencies that officials believed should not exist. For example, Rick Perry called for the elimination of the Department of Energy, but that did not stop Trump from appointing Perry to head the Department of Energy. Mick Mulvaney called for the abolition of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau before Trump chose him to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Unfortunately, the list doesn’t stop there.
As the president-elect prepares to return to the White House, a similar list is starting to take shape. For example, the Republican has announced plans to appoint a Republican operative named Kash Patel to lead the FBI, despite — or perhaps because of — the fact that Patel promised to “close” the bureau’s headquarters and “find it the next day.” to reopen’. a museum of the ‘deep state.’”
Similarly, Trump has appointed former Republican Rep. Billy Long of Missouri to head the Internal Revenue Service, which might not be particularly notable if the former congressman had not repeatedly tried to abolish the Internal Revenue Service. Tim Noah of the New Republic described it as a current example of “choosing a fox to guard the henhouse.”
While Long was in Congress, he co-sponsored a bill in three consecutive sessions to abolish the IRS and replace the income, payroll, estate and gift taxes with a 30 percent sales tax. This is an insane proposal that has been making the rounds since 1993.
Before we get into this, it’s important to pause for a moment and note that the Republican president-elect doesn’t get to pick anyone to head the IRS. The incumbent commissioner, Danny Werfel, was appointed in 2022 for a five-year term, and by all accounts he wants to retain his position – traditionally a “relatively impartial management position” – until his term expires.
Trump apparently plans to fire him anyway — an unprecedented move and evidence of a newly elected president determined to consolidate power after running on an authoritarian platform.
John Koskinen, a former IRS commissioner, expressed concern this week that Trump and his team would turn the office “into a political position.” It seems that’s exactly what the new Republican has in mind.
Complicating matters further, The New York Times reported after Trump’s announcement that Long has a problematic record of handing out a pandemic-era tax credit, which the IRS has warned is “a magnet for fraud.”
But as the former Missouri congressman prepares for the Senate confirmation inquiry, the most fundamental question hangs over his head: Why should Long lead a critically important federal agency that he doesn’t believe should exist?
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
