Live from Music Row, Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed the Taxpayers Protection Alliance President David Williams to the newsmaker line to explain the new left-wing funded study that would allow the IRS to prepare the taxes of Americans.
Leahy: We are joined on our newsmaker line now by the president of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, Mr. David Williams. Good morning, David.
Williams: Good morning. How are you?
Leahy: Well, I’m concerned, David, because the IRS, that Internal Revenue Service, they’re up to no good again. What is the latest IRS ploy?
Williams: Boy, this is really concerning because last year we saw the Inflation Reduction Act, the $80 billion, the 87,000 new agents, and there was something in that legislation that a lot of people didn’t see, and that was $15 million for the IRS, “study the implementation of a tax prep system by the IRS.”
That’s right. The IRS wants to now prepare your taxes. Think about that for a second. You go to a private company; you do it yourself. You’re trying to get yourself the biggest refund that you can.
Do you think the IRS is going to do that when they prepare your taxes? Do you think they really have it in your interest when they’re preparing your taxes? But that’s where we’re going with this, is the IRS wants to prepare your taxes.
Leahy: H&R Block, I don’t think they support this. And Crom Carmichael has a question for you.
Carmichael: The IRS is a part of the executive branch, correct?
Williams: Correct.
Carmichael: And it reports to the treasury because the President of the United States has determined that it should report to the treasury because the President is the head of the executive branch. Correct?
Williams: Correct.
Carmichael: So that means the White House could direct the IRS to do whatever the White House thinks the IRS should do in order to try to help the country.
Williams: Yes. And this is the huge conflict of interest right now is that if you have the IRS preparing your taxes, first of all, there are massive privacy concerns. Look what happened two years ago when sensitive taxpayer data was released to the media, to the public, something that should have never happened.
And we still don’t know who did it. We don’t know who is inside the IRS. Listen, Congress has dropped the ball on this, but the IRS has been so political over the past, boy, decades. In 2010, Lois Lerner denied groups their status, their 501 (c) (3) or 501 (c) (4). So it’s highly political. And now it’s going to get even worse with all this sensitive information being sent to the IRS.
Carmichael: But you said there’s $15 million in that. I think you said $15 million, not $15 billion, but to study whether or not the IRS could fill out people’s returns or should fill out their returns.
Williams: Yes. And so this $15 million is going to a left-leaning group, New America, that has had a history of being cozy with Senator Elizabeth Warren. They have supported the IRS in preparing your taxes. So, listen, this isn’t a study. This is ridiculous. This is not a study.
This is jeopardy. Jeopardy, you watch the show, they have the answers first, and you have to come up with the question. That’s what New America is doing. They’re just coming up with the question. They already know what the answer is. So this $15 million, A, is a waste of money, and B, there’s not going to be a real study here.
Leahy: In this bill, the incorrectly named Inflation Reduction Act, George Orwell said obviously it was the Inflation Increasing Act because the spending was crazy. There’s a $15 million contract. The federal government is giving money to this group called New America, a left-leaning group.
So I’m looking at the people that are funding this nonprofit. Are you ready? The Rockefeller Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Reid Hoffman Foundation, the left-wing guy who made money off of linkedin.com. This is a compendium of left-wing philanthropic groups.
And now they are getting $15 million of taxpayer money to study the idea of setting up a taxpayer prep service that would compete with H&R Block and all the other folks that are doing that?
Williams: Yes. And it’s a who’s who of left-leaning groups. And this is a group that has hundreds of millions of dollars. They don’t need this money, and they shouldn’t be getting this money. And not enough people know about this. And that’s my concern, is that people are listening, going, what the heck is going on?
And this is something that they tried to slip by us, but we actually had a whistleblower reach out to us that said, hey, listen, did you know about this and gave us this information. So if it wasn’t for that, I mean, talk about a non-transparent government, because this would have happened.
We would have found out probably in June when the study was done. But I’m glad we know now because we can put pressure on the House Republicans. And that’s what we’re doing, is we’re contacting the House Republicans saying, hey, whoa, wait a second. Pump the brakes on this, and we’re seeing if we can at least stop the study from happening.
Leahy: By the way, I’m looking at the other donation here the other guy’s donation, Michael Bloomberg. (Laughs)
Carmichael: Wow. That’s a who’s who of the billionaire class.
Leahy: The who’s who of left-wing billionaires who want to tell you how you should file your taxes. What’s wrong with this picture?
Williams: Yes, quite a bit wrong with that picture. And again, the IRS should not be preparing your taxes.
Leahy: Has the money changed hands? Are they doing the study now?
Williams: So they are doing the study. I don’t know if the $15 million has changed hands yet, but they’re in the process of doing this. And what you’re going to have is if the IRS is in charge of this, you’re going to have to give all of your financial information to the IRS.
And what that also means is that they’re going to have to hire more people. And this nonsense when we hear that, oh, they’re not going to go after the little guy in these audits.
Leahy: They’re going after the little guy.
Williams: They absolutely are.
Leahy: I’m looking at the list of donors. Wait for it. Wait for it. George Soros.
Williams: Oh my gosh.
Leahy: Open Society Foundation and then Pierre Omidyar. Right. His group. He’s the left-wing guy that started one of these; I think PayPal or something like that or eBay. He did eBay. But wait, there’s more. Google is funding it. And Amazon, the crazy guy who made money on Enron and now is a real lefty, Arnold Ventures.
Carmichael: Now, what are you talking about here, Michael? Is this is an organization that somehow is getting $15 million from the federal government to study…
Leahy: To study the idea of setting up the federal government’s tax preparation service. David, this is lunacy. It’s insane.
Williams: It really is. And the IRS has gone way beyond what it’s supposed to be doing. I mean, during the pandemic, the IRS gave money to dead people. And here’s the reason why is that no one told them not to. Literally, an IRS agent asked, why did you send checks to dead people? And they said, Well, Congress didn’t tell us not to.
Leahy: There you go. That wraps up the IRS in a nutshell. (Williams chuckles)
Listen to today’s show highlights, including this interview:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “David Williams” by David Williams. Background Photo “Internal Revenue Service Federal Building” by Tony Webster. CC BY 2.0.
