I pay attention to the statements made by the candidates running for office and I get very upset when I’m fed a downright lie. That is the case when Sen. Crapo’s TV ad states that the increase in the IRS funds by a recently passed law is a waste and “takes away tax money from the average Idaho tax payers.” FALSE! Crapo is misrepresenting the law. The increase to the IRS by this law is to provide the tax auditors the staff and ability needed to guarantee that the tax owed is the tax actually payed by ALL tax payers. The IRS has been underfunded for many years. As a result, presently, much less than one percent of tax returns submitted to the IRS are audited and as a result billions of tax dollars are not payed to the federal government. However, this is not the case for the average tax payer working for wages. Their taxes are automatically taken out from their paychecks and forwarded to the IRS by their employer. They are paying their fair share. It’s the rich, through their financial shenanigans that have been getting away with not paying their fair share. The presently passed law is intended to correct this rip off of the government by very rich unethical persons. This law has been needed for many, many years and the Republican Party has fought passing sufficient funds to the IRS to allow them to do their job. They want the previous law of uncollected taxes to continue and that hurts us all.

Robert J. Gehrke,

Pocatello