As the House of Representatives, as early as this afternoon, prepares to give the Internal Revenue Service the biggest single funding boost in its history, top Democrats have been busy escalating their already implausible claims that goosing the IRS enforcement budget by 69 percent over a decade, hiring 87,000 additional new staffers at an agency that currently employs 79,000, and nabbing an estimated extra $124 billion in tax revenue will miraculously not bring any percentage increase in audits performed on Americans earning less than $400,000 a year.
"Contrary to the misinformation from opponents of this legislation," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen wrote in a letter to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig Wednesday, "small business or households earning $400,000 per year or less will not see an increase in the chances that they are audited." Rettig had echoed the language of his boss in a letter of attempted reassurance to the Senate on August 4, albeit with more wiggle room (italicized):
