Gaetz blasts IRS, railroad agency buying up ammo: 'The heaviest artillery they need is a calculator'

[Oompa Loompa]

Gaetz blasts IRS, railroad agency buying up ammo: 'The heaviest artillery they need is a calculator'

MATT GAETZ: Call me old-fashioned, but I thought the heaviest artillery an IRS agent would need would be a calculator. I imagine the IRS in green eyeshades and cubicles — not busting doors down and emptying Glock clips on our fellow Americans. Certainly it's troubling that in 2022 alone, the IRS has spent around $725,000 on ammunition. So here's the Biden plan: Disarm Americans, open the border, empty the prisons — but rest assured, they'll still collect your taxes, and they need $725,000 worth of ammunition, apparently, to get the job done.

Can anyone explain why the IRS and the railroad need so much ammo?

 

[iluvatar5150]

Gaetz blasts IRS, railroad agency buying up ammo: 'The heaviest artillery they need is a calculator'



Can anyone explain why the IRS and the railroad need so much ammo?

Because they have law enforcement officers. I’d also point out that he’s a congressman who ought to know the answer to that question.

Either he’s painfully ignorant of these leo’s and has no business in congress; knows about them and is playing cynical games hoping his audience is ignorant; or he’s joined the “defund the police” movement.

Which do you think is most likely?

 

[Oompa Loompa]

Because they have law enforcement officers. I’d also point out that he’s a congressman who ought to know the answer to that question.

Either he’s painfully ignorant of these leo’s and has no business in congress; knows about them and is playing cynical games hoping his audience is ignorant; or he’s joined the “defund the police” movement.

Which do you think is most likely?

Understood, but it doesn't explain why the IRS has stockpiled over $11,000,000 worth of ammunition.

 

[iluvatar5150]

Understood, but it doesn't explain why the IRS has stockpiled over $11,000,000 worth of ammunition.

This comes up every few years when a new ammo contract gets signed. The answer is typically a mix of what’s required to keep officers proficient with their weapons, and some confusion over how multi-year procurement contracts work.

 

[Gregory Thompson]

Understood, but it doesn't explain why the IRS has stockpiled over $11,000,000 worth of ammunition.

I wonder how inflation figures into the number.

 

[iluvatar5150]

Gaetz blasts IRS, railroad agency buying up ammo: 'The heaviest artillery they need is a calculator'



Can anyone explain why the IRS and the railroad need so much ammo?

k, I finally watched the segment. Jesse Waters' commentary in the beginning is nothing but an argument from incredulity. When he asks questions like "What is the Railroad Review Board" and "Why is the administration doing this?", he's not actually doing any sort of thoughtful analysis or commentary. All he's doing is ginning up fear and paranoia, hoping that his viewers don't catch on to the game he's playing. A good journalist - even a good analyst - would go ask those questions and find their answers before filming the segment. The answers to those questions aren't hard to find - most anybody can dig them up, especially somebody like him with the resources backing a high-profile show on the highest-rated cable news network.

What he's doing is lazy, garbage commentary, encouraging his audience to partake in mindless, ignorance-fueled outrage. It's why I think it's accurate to describe his brand of commentary (and others like it) as parasitic - it doesn't add anything to our national discourse. It doesn't make anything better or help anybody. All it does it suck up money and good will for itself and leave behind problems that other people have to deal with.

 

[Estrid]

Understood, but it doesn't explain why the IRS has stockpiled over $11,000,000 worth of ammunition.

Your taxes at work

 

[Bradskii]

Gaetz blasts IRS, railroad agency buying up ammo: 'The heaviest artillery they need is a calculator'
Can anyone explain why the IRS and the railroad need so much ammo?

Let's run some figures.

The IRS has about 2,000 agents (IRS Spotlights Criminal Investigation Law Enforcement | Internal Revenue Service)
Cost of ammo per year: $725,000
Cost per agent per month: $30

The training they need to do includes: (https://www.treasury.gov/tigta/auditreports/2018reports/201830046fr.pdf)

CI assigned handgun standard qualifications.
Tactical equipment proficiency training.
Shotgun familiarization training.
Flashlight/lowlight techniques training.
Annual safety briefing.
Long gun familiarization.

Am I right in assuming a reasonable average price for ammo would be a dollar a bullet? So does 30 shots a month in training sound a lot? Looking at some posts in Quora, some guys seemed to think 50-100 was necessary to maintain proficiency. I'd like to think that any federal officer carrying a gun was reasonably 'proficient'.

 

[Oompa Loompa]

Your taxes at work

That sounds fair. It would completely make sense for the IRS to waste taxpayer's money. Who else will audit them?

 

[Oompa Loompa]

Let's run some figures.

The IRS has about 2,000 agents (IRS Spotlights Criminal Investigation Law Enforcement | Internal Revenue Service)
Cost of ammo per year: $725,000
Cost per agent per month: $30

The training they need to do includes: (https://www.treasury.gov/tigta/auditreports/2018reports/201830046fr.pdf)

CI assigned handgun standard qualifications.
Tactical equipment proficiency training.
Shotgun familiarization training.
Flashlight/lowlight techniques training.
Annual safety briefing.
Long gun familiarization.

Am I right in assuming a reasonable average price for ammo would be a dollar a bullet? So does 30 shots a month in training sound a lot? Looking at some posts in Quora, some guys seemed to think 50-100 was necessary to maintain proficiency. I'd like to think that any federal officer carrying a gun was reasonably 'proficient'.

When you put it that way, that doesn't seem like much at all.

 

[iluvatar5150]

Am I right in assuming a reasonable average price for ammo would be a dollar a bullet?

Depends on the specifics. That's high for pistol ammo, but not super crazy high. A quick search is showing around $0.30/rd for retail prices online. Even if bulk purchases like what the government would make are $0.10/rd (i.e. one tenth your estimate), you'd still only be looking at 300 rds/mo/agent.

 

[iluvatar5150]

When you put it that way, that doesn't seem like much at all.

That's why Jesse Waters' commentary is such trash. Who the heck is @Bradskii that he, an internet rando in another country, can pull this up, but Waters can't?

 

[The IbanezerScrooge]

.

 

[The IbanezerScrooge]

When you put it that way, that doesn't seem like much at all.

/thread

 

[FreeinChrist]

The IRS is part of the Dept. of the Treasury. It is a law enforcement agency and while much of the investigations involve paperwork, there is also fraud and racketeering. Remember that a Treasury agent worked with Elliot Ness to get Al Capone, who was convicted of tax evasion.

 

[Gregory Thompson]

I guess if you don't have "the big guns" organized crime might be more bold in their money laundering.