Tractors and (upcoming) tariffs?

[jyoutz]

If you think tax audits are an “odd scenario”, then you are really scary-naive.
Americans spent 1/2 trillion defending against IRS audits.

Do you really see the need for such waste of money, when there could be tariffs or a national income tax?

Then we don’t need 85,000 rookie IRS agents running around packing heat?

They aren’t odd, but they don’t come and camp out at your house. I posted why Congress won’t consider other options, but do agree with you that other options would be worth investigating.

 

[bvanek]

government workers spending time online projecting politics in a tractor forum instead of concentrating on their job. Could that be considered a waste of taxpayer dollars?

 

[jyoutz]

government workers spending time online projecting politics in a tractor forum instead of concentrating on their job. Could that be considered a waste of taxpayer dollars?

True if it was a work day. I’m working Saturday instead of today because I have appointments. And explaining how government works isn’t politics. I have said not a thing about political parties in this thread. Troll on.

 

[sunandsand]

I've had the "camping in my office" experience. It wasn't the IRS, but the Florida BPR (Bureau of Professional Regulation).

I was working with a very experienced mortgage broker (he'd been in business since 1950, passed away some years ago), and we got an application for $8,000 for a roof replacement on an elderly lady's house. Normally that would go to a bank for a personal loan, but her credit was non-existent. (What was the line in the movie "I have a very bad feeling about this"?)

Her grandkids were going to do the work and I got "volunteered" to supervise. They had no idea what they were doing, no workman's comp, no liability insurance, no experience, nothing. It was a mess from the get-go.

We'd ask for receipts for the materials, they took offense (Don't you trust us?) and demanded a receipt for their receipt, and so on. Finally, some relative or other got involved and announced that this was done without a building permit and it was OUR fault. The house was in county, and at the time, building permits were not required to replace a roof. The relative got quite snotty about this and reported us to the BPR.

BPR sent an auditor who specialized in auditing cemeteries. He camped in our office for four days and examined every scrap of paper he could lay his hands on related to the $8,000 loan. We got to hear such nuggets as "What you find in wastebaskets is very interesting!" whereupon we started emptying the waste baskets before he got there, when he went out for lunch, and after he left in the evening.

After four solid days of this kind of BS, he announced that he was done and we were off . . . wait for it . . . twenty five whole cents. In the borrower's favor.

My partner held out his hand and asked for the quarter. Auditor left, quietly. That was the last we heard from them.

Oh, yeah, the old lady died during this circus and the house went up for sale.

Best Regards,
Mike/Florida

 

[Hay Dude]

I applied for apportioned plates for my trucks so I could conduct business in any state (I live in an area where PA/DE/MD and NJ all are close together) I had a guy from the DOT who smelled like cigarettes in my dining room for about 6 hours clacking away on a laptop doing Lord knows what.
He said he was there to inspect my trucks prior to issuance of my apportioned plates. One truck was in my garage. He shamed me for having tools in the bed, claiming “they could fly out and kill somebody”….. I swear I thought I was being punked….He crawled all over that truck.
Then he says, “where’s the other truck?”. It was in winter and parked down next to my barn in about 2 inches of snow about 500 feet from the house. The guy got up put his DOT overcoat on and we started down for the barn. About 1/2 way there, he says “awww screw it, I’m not gonna roll around in the snow and look at that damn truck”.

He got in his black “kidnapper” van with cop lights on top and left.

 

[Williy]

Years ago William Proxmire of Wisconsin had his golden
fleece award for some of the wasteful spending of the gov
$50,000 for a japanese troop to come to the U.S. and the
guy had sex with a rabbit! Goes to show the morals of what
we have in congress!

willy

 

[dpauly]

DOGE is a ridiculous concept; it's self-contradictory, replicating what already exists.

IMHO opinion DOGE has been a long time coming. Agree that appointing a new Dept. to address a runaway National Debt should not be necessary in a Constitution based Republic (NOT a "Democracy" [aka Mob Rule] as so many ignorant/disingenuous talking heads, celebrities, citizens and even politicians have been trying to equate the two terms.) But the fact that too many of those we've elected to run our country have been abdicating their responsibility and "kicking the can down the road" by continuing to spend/allow outrageous spending so that we've found ourselves with an obscene, insurmountable Debt that we and our heirs will be saddled with until everyone's broke or SOMEONE figures a way to tame it demands another approach. Far as I know (I'm no lawyer or Constitutional scholar) there's no Constitutional prohibition to such an act. (Didn't Jimmy Carter stand up the previously non-existent Dept. of Education?) Naming a genius who has all the money he could possibly spend in 10 lifetimes and who has shown his ability not only in the technical/scientific world but also expertise in running a "huuuge" business empire is also a smart move. My advice to those who find this solution troubling is for them to find a way to get our citizens to start voting only for those who will stick to what's Constitutional/rational . . .

 

[jyoutz]

IMHO opinion DOGE has been a long time coming. Agree that appointing a new Dept. to address a runaway National Debt should not be necessary in a Constitution based Republic (NOT a "Democracy" [aka Mob Rule] as so many ignorant/disingenuous talking heads, celebrities, citizens and even politicians have been trying to equate the two terms.) But the fact that too many of those we've elected to run our country have been abdicating their responsibility and "kicking the can down the road" by continuing to spend/allow outrageous spending so that we've found ourselves with an obscene, insurmountable Debt that we and our heirs will be saddled with until everyone's broke or SOMEONE figures a way to tame it demands another approach. Far as I know (I'm no lawyer or Constitutional scholar) there's no Constitutional prohibition to such an act. (Didn't Jimmy Carter stand up the previously non-existent Dept. of Education?) Naming a genius who has all the money he could possibly spend in 10 lifetimes and who has shown his ability not only in the technical/scientific world but also expertise in running a "huuuge" business empire is also a smart move. My advice to those who find this solution troubling is for them to find a way to get our citizens to start voting only for those who will stick to what's Constitutional/rational . . .

Of course it’s ok for a president to establish a Department to advise. But the constitution only gives power of the purse to congress. Doge can make recommendations, but cannot usurp the authority of congress to pass a budget and allocate funds to the executive branch.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

It will be interesting to put all of these government agencies out there and inform the American people of the actual waste. Then if congress doesn't act, I suppose we vote.

 

[jyoutz]

It will be interesting to put all of these government agencies out there and inform the American people of the actual waste. Then if congress doesn't act, I suppose we vote.

A lot of what could be considered as waste is agencies following arcane laws that Congress established. Many legal requirements are unnecessary or counterproductive, but they are laws that Congress has passed that direct operations, and agencies have no choice but to comply.