It’s no secret that the Democrats are the party of higher taxes and bigger government. Congressional Democrats voted in 2022 to add 87,000 more employees to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to expand its power over American taxpayers.
One Democrat is decrying the Trump administration’s efforts to loosen the IRS’s grip on taxpayers. Abigail Spanberger, the Democrat running against Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears for governor of Virginia, took to X on April 15 to wish everyone a “Happy Tax Day!”
To quote my friend and colleague Sarah Anderson, “Let me just start by saying that there is nothing, and I repeat nothing, happy about ‘Tax Day.’” If you’re wishing me “Happy Tax Day,” you’d better be joking or sarcastic.
But that’s what Spanberger did with complete sincerity:
Happy Tax Day.
Just a reminder that while Virginians are filing their taxes, the Trump Administration is cutting IRS staff and making it harder for people across the Commonwealth to get the help they need.https://t.co/mO2RBcBlB0
— Abigail Spanberger (@SpanbergerForVA) April 15, 2025
Spanberger linked to an Associated Press article about layoffs at the IRS. The AP report gives more details about the layoffs that Spanberger is complaining about:
The IRS plans to cut as many as 20,000 staffers — up to 25% of the workforce — as part of layoffs that began Friday, two people familiar with the situation told The Associated Press.
The job cuts will begin with the IRS Office of Civil Rights and Compliance, which would be reduced by 75% through layoffs, and its remaining workers would be absorbed into the agency’s Office of Chief Counsel, according to those two people as well as a third person familiar with the matter.
For the record, the Office of Civil Rights and Compliance is the new coat of paint that the IRS put on its Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. But there’s more to the layoffs than that one office.
A Treasury spokesperson who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview Treasury plans said Friday that any staffing reductions are part of larger process improvements and tech innovations that will allow the IRS to operate more effectively.
Rolling back Biden-era hiring and consolidating support functions are intended to more efficiently serve the public, the spokesperson said in a statement.
Only a Democrat would root for a more bloated, less efficient bureaucracy. Earle-Sears called Spanberger out for her ridiculousness.
Related: Shrieking Federal Employee Says the Quiet Part Out Loud About DOGE Fears
“You just can’t make this up,” Earle-Sears posted on X. “Only a DC politician like @SpanbergerForVA would defend the IRS on Tax Day AFTER voting to hire 87,000 agents to wring every dollar out of you.”
She’s not the only one calling Spanberger out.
C’mon, Virginia. We can do so much better than this. https://t.co/jGUrbMBfew
— The🐰FOO (@PolitiBunny) April 15, 2025
The IRS isn’t here to “help” Americans. All that agency is here for is to get as much of our money as it can. Read the room, Abbs. Americans voted to lessen the burden that the federal government places on their lives. They’re cheering for fewer IRS bureaucrats.
What a time to be alive! Elon Musk and DOGE are doing the yeoman’s work of showing just how entrenched, wasteful, and entitled our federal bureaucracy is.
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