Being deputized to help carry out deportations would be a new responsibility for IRS-Criminal Investigation agents, requiring additional training and diverting from other activities with proven benefits.

How will Congress extend expiring provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) and advance other Trump Administration tax priorities—that some budget watchers have ballparked could cost up to $11 trillion—while staying within the resolution’s $4.5 trillion tax cut target? One suggested but not fully examined idea: Modify the extension of its lower individual income tax rates.

The U.S. recently surpassed the unfortunate milestone where all new federal revenue is already committed to specific spending priorities due to existing laws. As discussed in my recent book, Beyond Zombie Rule: Reclaiming Fiscal Sanity in a Broken Congress, this obstruction of current and future voters’ ability to make decisions has been growing under all recent presidents. That growth shows no sign of abating under President Trump. 

The Trump Administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has pressed the IRS for permission to access individual tax return information of US households and businesses. While the DOGE team says it needs taxpayer data to search out “waste, fraud, and abuse,” such a move puts at risk deeply personal information on more than 150 million tax filers, with no clear benefit.