(LifeSiteNews) — The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), whose membership includes the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), has endorsed Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris for President of the United States in one of the rare declarations of support from an interest group that a candidate may not want.
“When it comes to treating federal employees with respect, valuing their service and investing in their work, Kamala Harris is the clear choice,” NTEU national president Doreen Greenwald said in the announcement. “She shares our values and our commitment to making sure that the federal government works for all Americans. She has been a strong advocate for the issues that matter most to federal employees: fair pay, paid family leave, adequate agency funding and staffing, and robust collective bargaining rights.”
The press release cited Harris’ work as Chair of the White House Task Force on Worker Organizing & Empowerment, support of budgets that grew federal staffing and budgets, and “significant new investments to rebuild the IRS under the Inflation Reduction Act,” which despite the name did not address inflation but did give the IRS $80 billion to help the Biden administration’s plans to hire almost 87,000 additional IRS agents, which would more than double the agency’s current workforce.
The NTEU also praised Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, for signing “laws to expand public sector collective bargaining and provide paid family leave.”
The Harris campaign does not appear to have publicly acknowledged the endorsement, though an X account called “Kamala’s Wins,” the self-described “largest online community supporting soon to be President Kamala Harris” with more than 750,000 followers, celebrated it, which was met with mockery due to the IRS’s less-than-favorable status in the eyes of working- and middle-class Americans.
Harris’ recently released campaign platform promises to “build an opportunity economy,” including through an expansion of child tax credits, government spending on rental properties and direct payments to first-time homebuyers, unspecified legal action against corporations over their prices, expanding the so-called Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), “strengthen(ing)” Social Security and Medicare by raising taxes on the rich, new government spending on infrastructure, education, child care, and so-called “green” energy initiatives. Her critics contend that translates to substantial tax increases to be enforced by the IRS.
“Agents certainly appreciate her call to make the IRS even larger and more powerful if she wins the presidency. Agents will be hired and deployed to implement the $5 trillion of tax increases Harris wishes to impose over the next decade,” responded John Kartch of Americans for Tax Reform (ATR). “She has proposed personal and small business income tax increases, a capital gains tax increase, a corporate tax rate increase, a Death Tax increase, a carbon tax, and several other new or higher taxes.”
Especially concerning is the prospect of a President Harris continuing the Biden administration’s use of federal agencies to punish political opponents, of which the IRS has long been a key component. It has targeted pro-life Americans and Tea Party groups as far back as the 2012 election cycle (under former Democrat President Barack Obama, in which Joe Biden served as vice president).
Harris currently leads her Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump, by 2 percent in RealClearPolitics’ popular vote polling average and by 3.5 percent to 3.9 percent according to RaceToTheWH (depending on whether former independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is counted), but margins remain extremely close in the swing states that will decide the Electoral College outcome.