Right now there are some backroom forums where IRS employees adopt pseudonyms to discuss the workings of the bureau. We're not a happy bunch. Currently we're arguing over the finer points of legislating and our unhappy opinions about our republic's legislators. The Hatch Act would require us all to resign our commissions but it would be interesting if a group of us ran for Congress in 2020 as the Cranky Tax Collector Caucus. It would take about 30 of us not aligning with either the Republicans or Democrats to gum up the works mathemetically so as to become the kingmakers.

We're past the two week mark on the Partial Government Shutdown. The news media keeps saying that only a quarter is closed. The reason for that is the vast majority of federal spending is concentrated in our Department of Defense. Comparatively speaking, NASA is run on a relative shoestring budget of only $15 billion. That's a rounding error in parts of the military's budget. It most certainly is a rounding error in the budget for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

The unique USA phenomenon of "Refund Season" where people celebrate overpaying their taxes through the preceding year by receiving the overpayment back without interest (occasionally including infamous "refundable tax credits") is looking to be potentially delayed. This heavily involves us at IRS since we are the tax collectors. This whole period of time warps the economic status of the country and can cause disruptions to sales figures throughout February into March. During a Partial Government Shutdown, we aren't allowed to send out the overpayment refunds. This would warp the economy insofar that it would distort it back to a state resembling life before World War II when Milton Friedman invented the "temporary" measure of income tax withholdings from pay checks.

Frankly, I'm okay with this. People aren't supposed to depend on income tax overpayment refund proceeds. If their withholdings are adjusted right, they'll have the correct amounts in their paycheck and not overpay their government. Unfortunately we would need a disaster like the current budget crisis to change the cultural phenomenon of "Refund Season".

The SNAP program, supplemental nutrition assistance program, run through the states by the US Department of Agriculture is apparently on track to run out of operating dollars at the end of January. This is a form of non-taxable welfare payment designated solely for the purchase of foodstuffs. Such a lapse would cause some social upheaval. Whether states take the hit financially to keep it going or if program participants are left hanging is an open question. This will be an excellent opportunity for churches and local community organizations to reach out to these impacted populations to provide non-governmental assistance.

Carry on, my wayward son...