Remember when the IRS was trying to use the excuse that it didn’t have enough employees to deal with the Tea Party applications? Well guess how many employees they could hire with $70 million: A LOT! In fact, if paying each a high salary of $70k/yr, that’s 1,000 employees right there.
But no, that is bonus money for current employees because, you know, they’ve done such a swell job over the last few years. They deserve a fat bonus check. Except Obama signed a directive telling them not to spend that money on bonuses. But that apparently doesn’t matter as they intend to do so anyway:
CBS NEWS – 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, R-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.”
The IRS said it is negotiating with the union over the matter but did not dispute Grassley’s claim that the bonuses are imminent.