Billionaire Elon Musk asked social media users Wednesday if the Internal Revenue Service should be “deleted” — a day after a top Biden-Harris administration official urged Congress to give the federal agency $20 billion.
“The IRS just said it wants $20B more money,” Musk, who will co-lead informal Department of Government Efficiency under President-elect Donald Trump, wrote on X.
The world’s richest person then asked users for their thoughts on the tax authority’s budget situation.
“Do you think its budget should be: Increased, Same, Decreased, Deleted,” Musk asked in a poll.
More than 60% of X users preferred having the IRS’s budget “deleted.”
Only 3.9% said the federal agency’s budget should remain the same, 5.6% felt it deserved more money and 29.9% said the IRS budget should be decreased.
The Tesla CEO’s tweet follows Treasury Department Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo making a desperate public plea for billions of dollars in more funding for the IRS.
“The IRS is going to potentially have to make dramatic decisions about stopping hiring and starting to budget for a world in which they don’t have $20 billion, which will stop a lot of their progress,” Adeyemo told reporters on a press call Tuesday.
”If they don’t get that $20 billion that is at risk they would run out of enforcement money at the current pace sometime in fiscal year 2025,” he added.
The massive shortfall appears to be the result of text included in stopgap congressional legislation passed in September to keep the federal government funded until Dec. 20.
Congressional Republicans have tucked a $20 billion IRS enforcement cut into the government funding legislation, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Adeyemo urged Congress to unlock the $20 billion in funds for the IRS in the upcoming budget battle, claiming that without the money some $140 billion would be added to the national deficit, by way of thousands of fewer audits for the wealthy and large corporations.
Musk and DOGE co-leader Vivek Ramaswamy intend to use the new Trump administration initiative to slash government spending.
The SpaceX founder and X owner has already pledged to cut the bloated federal budget by “at least $2 trillion.”
The head of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonprofit that advocates for fiscal restraint, joined Adeyemo on the call and backed his plea.
“Given the fiscal situation we deeply hope there is no backsliding in the coming months and years with rescinding, diverting, repealing any of the revenue that is going effectively into the IRS to help with tax collection,” Maya MacGuineas, the president of CRFB, said.
Her group identified $20 billion in potential savings Wednesday by reversing President Biden’s “Directive Limiting Use of IRS Enforcement Funding.”