Dem
47
GOP
53
It almost seems like Donald Trump is going out of his way to find nominees who are completely unqualified for their positions, daring the Senate to reject them. With some modest effort, he could find people who support his views and who could be confirmed easily, but that is not his game plan.
The latest unqualified nominee is Billy Long for IRS commissioner. Long is a college dropout who was an auctioneer for over 30 years before being elected to the House from Missouri. He is not a tax lawyer or an accountant or a CPA. While in Congress, Long did not serve on the Finance or Taxation committees and knows nothing about tax law or running a sprawling organization like the IRS, which has 85,000 employees.
While in Congress, he did support a flat tax, in which everyone would pay the same tax rate, irrespective of their income. Billionaires would love that. Of course, the commissioner has no say at all on tax rates. That is up to Congress. Maybe Trump doesn't know that. Or maybe he wants to weaponize the IRS against his political enemies. That could be done under the radar but it would require a commissioner who would play ball.
The reaction to the nomination is mixed, as expected. Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID) said he is looking forward to hearing Long's ideas about IRS. On the other hand, Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA), who is on the tax subcommittee, called it a "terrible mistake."
Another issue is that, as with the FBI, the IRS commissioner has a fixed term to avoid political interference. The term of the current commissioner, Danny Werfel, runs until Nov. 2027, but Trump said he would fire Werfel immediately. When Congress wrote the laws about the tenure of agency heads, it was naively assuming presidents would not terminate them prematurely just to put in their own people. The laws should have simply stated that they are allowed to finish their term unless they are impeached and convicted by Congress. Giving the president the power to fire them at will just makes them ordinary political appointees, which was not Congress' intent.
One reason Trump may want to replace Werfel with someone who knows nothing about taxation or running a large bureaucracy is that Werfel expanded audits of wealthy individuals and big corporations, clawing back billions in unpaid taxes. He also rolled out a scheme in which people with relatively simple tax returns can file online for free, something very common in Europe. It is hated bitterly by tax prep companies and companies that make tax prep software. Werfel also greatly improved IRS customer service, which was woeful. Some Democratic lawmakers are afraid that all of this will be canceled by Long, making it simple for rich people and corporations to cheat and get away with it.
Previous commissioners knew something about taxation other than not liking taxes. Werfel has a master's in public policy from Duke, a J.D. from the University of North Carolina, held multiple jobs within the IRS, and was acting commissioner for 6 months in 2013. Before him was Charles Rettig, who has a master's in taxation and who worked as a tax lawyer for three decades before being nominated and who also was chairman of the IRS Advisory Council. Will Long be confirmed? Probably, unless some scandal is unearthed soon. For Republican senators, merely being totally incompetent is no reason to reject the president's choice and they will no doubt hear from their big donors who will rejoice at the pick. (V)