US President Donald Trump fired thousands of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) workers during tax season. Former IRS commissioner Daniel Werfel, co-author of the New York Times's recent opinion piece on the job cuts, joins Seana Smith and Madison Mills on Catalysts to discuss his concerns about the IRS cuts and the reality of the layoffs for thousands of federal workers.
"Myself and the other commissioners were confused by this decision because if the goal is cost efficiency, I think one of the first things you learn on the first day of business school is the bottom line of an organization is made up of both cost and revenue," Werfel says. "The IRS is the accounts receivable department for the US government, and so by depleting the capacity of the accounts receivable of the US government, you deplete the capacity to collect revenue and you'll actually reduce cost efficiency," Werfel explains.
The former commissioner says there is concern about the IRS's ability to process millions of Americans' tax returns with capacity constraints.
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"One thing you don't want to do during filing season is destabilize the organization; you don't want to increase risk, you want things steady as she goes. And a layoff of this magnitude is going to be highly disruptive," Werfel adds.
Watch the video above to hear the former IRS commissioner's perspective on myth-busting about what the IRS does, the layoffs' impact on the national deficit, and more.
To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Catalysts here.
This post was written by Naomi Buchanan.