Senator: IRS to pay $70M in employee bonuses

[alp227]

Source: AP

The Internal Revenue Service is about to pay $70 million in employee bonuses despite an Obama administration directive to cancel discretionary bonuses because of automatic spending cuts enacted this year, according to a GOP senator.

Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa says his office has learned that the IRS is executing an agreement with the employees' union on Wednesday to pay the bonuses. Grassley says the bonuses should be canceled under an April directive from the White House budget office.

The directive was written by Danny Werfel, a former budget official who has since been appointed acting IRS commissioner.

"The IRS always claims to be short on resources," Grassley said. "But it appears to have $70 million for union bonuses. And it appears to be making an extra effort to give the bonuses despite opportunities to renegotiate with the union and federal instruction to cease discretionary bonuses during sequestration."

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/gop-senator-irs-pay-70m-employee-bonuses

[McCamy Taylor]

1. If these are bounties for the "capture" of tax cheats, then leave them alone.

If not, then yeah, maybe they should cut back.

[HeroInAHalfShell]

2. This is just as bad as CEO's getting millions in bonuses for screwing the people over...

[phleshdef]

8. Bullshit. The IRS has 90,000 employees and this is due to a collective bargaining agreement.

Take your anti-public worker BS elsewhere.

[HeroInAHalfShell]

9. so every employee gets a 77K bonus?

[cstanleytech]

14. 77k? Shouldnt that be roughly $777 per employee?

[HeroInAHalfShell]

16. oops.. my bad. thats what happens when I do 5 things at once..

[hatrack]

18. You don't do math very well, do you? Assuming $70 million split evenly among 90,000 employees . .

That works out to less than $800/employee.

But hey, thanks for playing.

[HeroInAHalfShell]

20. thanks for being the second person to point that out captain obvious.

did you read where I said my bad?


thanks for your concern. not.

[politicaljunkie41910]

26. Good thing YOU don't work for the IRS. These employees are hard working people. I recall when the

Wall St. execs blew up the nation's economy and still wanted their millions in bonuses and they were a helluva lot more than an average $777 per person. Couple that with the fact that federal workers have not received a pay increase in more than 3 years, I think they deserve it. Cut the union bull crap until you've walked a mile in these people's shoes.

[HeroInAHalfShell]

27. I think everyone deserves a bonus if its written in your CONTRACT.

You don't think the IRS has hurt hard working Americans? I wouldn't call all these employees hard working..


So you think these people deserve it but no one else?

[TexasTowelie]

28. +1

I have a friend from college that started working for the IRS after graduation. Public servants work hard to serve the public and considering that he brings in $16 for every dollar of his salary, I won't begrudge him getting a bonus since there haven't been pay raises in a few years. They have expenses and bills to pay just like every other American and should not be treated as second-class citizens.

[CreekDog]

30. the important lesson is that if you screw them, the best ones can go work for the private sector

and use all their knowledge to help the private sector legally avoid tax enforcement.

so i urge you, cheap out, make it bad for them, make them miserable.

do your worst!

in the end your efforts will be rewarded in kind and we all will pay more.

[hatrack]

13. Not even remotely theoretically close.

Remember 2008? Remember the wrecked economy? Remember the hundreds of thousands of job losses every month?

Remember how officers of Wall Street's big firms voted themselves & their employees more than $20 billion in bonuses for their outstanding work that year, after getting $700 billion in taxpayer support for their bad bets?

And now you're going to get all bent out of shape over roughly 1/300th of the same amount going to employees of one of the few remaining government agencies capable of any enforcement on the same crooks & their tax dodging tactics?

Whatthefuckever.

[onehandle]

3. Fuck you, chuck.

Your ilk hates unions. Hates the IRS. Hates non-millionaires.

Don't be so transparent, asshole.

[louis-t]

4. Chuck just wants to give that money to millionaires so they'll

'create jobs'.

[MrSlayer]

5. Sorry bud, that's a contract.

You have to honor your contracts. All this is, is anti-union bullshit talk. Pay the employees what was promised, asshole.

Spread it over the thousands of workers and it works out to what per person? Not a whole lot. Certainly nowhere near the bloated bonuses the Wall Street thieves got on taxpayer money.

[HeroInAHalfShell]

10. Well isn't the argument for huge CEO bonuses that it is in their contract?

[closeupready]

6. If it's part of the collective bargaining agreement, I'm not

interested in Grassley's disdain. The two parties agreed, and that's that.

[HeroInAHalfShell]

12. you're fine with CEO's getting bonuses when its in their contract, right?

[closeupready]

15. What part of "collective bargaining agreement" was unclear?

[HeroInAHalfShell]

17. what part of "it says it in the contract" was unclear with CEO bonuses?

[closeupready]

21. Oh, I see. I'm not playing games with 58 post members

who come here to DU to disrupt. Off to ignore with you.

[HeroInAHalfShell]

23. what a waste of a response. whats the point of telling me im going on your ignore list?

you need to feel good about putting someone on your ignore list, do you feel better now that I know?


w/e ignore me. I wont lose any sleep over it. BYE!!!!

[Mass]

7. More union bashing from Grassley.

[hatrack]

19. And from our new friend, with 59 posts . . .

[closeupready]

22. Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner, folks!

+1

[HeroInAHalfShell]

25. hahaha omg.

[HeroInAHalfShell]

24. I have a name you know....

[hatrack]

31. You have several: "Look at ME Look at ME!!" is one. Another is "Ignore", another is "goodbye"

.

[HeroInAHalfShell]

32. Goodbye. N/t

[HeroInAHalfShell]

11. If it is in their contract to get these bonuses then I am fine with CEO's getting bonuses

that were written in their contracts.

[TexasTowelie]

29. The difference is that the IRS employees perform a service that is of benefit to all Americans

so that we can have a government that provides for our national defense, infrastructure and meet the social contracts made with our citizens. The CEOs perform a service that enriches only themselves and a few shareholders while screwing the employees within their control with inadequate wages, unpaid work (I was a salaried employee so I can testify to that) and declining benefits with no appreciation of the contributions those employees make so that they can profit off of exploited labor.