Everybody hates the IRS...until it shuts down

Who remembers when Republicans shut down the government in 2013 and then picked up a bunch of seats for it? Remember how all the polls showed the public saw the shutdown as their fault? Why did voters reward them for it?

The answer is simple, the roll-out of the Affordable Care Act’s web portal was troubled with lack of server capacity and was exacerbated by the shutdown. The Democrats’ signature legislation looked like it was exactly the sloppy, bureaucratic mess Republicans wanted to make it out to be.

Well now the government is shut down again. President Trump is reportedly not very worried and Mitch McConnell is taking a hard stance on not negotiating at all to reopen it. The difference is, Republicans are the party in control now trying to roll out their signature legislation.

What happens if the IRS is furloughed through tax season? They’ll still work on last years tax returns, but they certainly won’t be writing new regulations. As the Washington Post reports they haven't even started writing the regulations for meal compensations, much less put together materials for businesses trying to navigate the new tax code. Even after they come back, how much will it disrupt their ability to implement an overhaul of the tax code if they’re dealing with a backlog of tax forms and bringing 60% of their employees back to work?

It certainly wouldn’t be painless for Democrats for the IRS to be thrown into turmoil. Blue states will have to guess at ways to avoid the SALT changes and colleges will be in the dark. Still, on the question of who will look worse if the GOP’s only legislative accomplishment after controlling the entire federal government is a total disaster...well I think there is no question on that one.