As the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) looks to slash waste and correct inefficiencies, one DOGE adviser revealed it’s “hard to really grasp the scale” of problems facing the IRS.
“A huge part of our government is collecting taxes. We cannot perform the basic functions of tax collection without paying a toll to all these contractors. We really have to figure out how to get out of this hole. We’re in a really deep hole right now,” DOGE representative Sam Corcos said on “The Ingraham Angle” Thursday.
The “DOGE bro” shed light on his work within the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to trim the federal government fat alongside Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
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Corcos told Fox News host Laura Ingraham that one of his main priorities during his six-month timeline is to look at the IRS modernization program, as well as other operations and budgets.
“This is a huge program that’s currently 30 years behind schedule, and it’s already $15 billion over budget,” he said. “The IRS has some pretty legacy infrastructure…and the challenge has been how do we migrate that to a modern system?”
The CEO and co-founder of Levels observed that many major banks who ran on similar systems have already modernized. He added the IRS is over three decades behind schedule and billions over budget compared to the typical expectations for the industry.
“We’re now 35 years into this program. If you ask them now, it’s five years away, and it’s been five years away since 1990. It was supposed to be delivered in 1996, and it’s still five years away,” he said.
Bessent, who was recently confirmed as President Donald Trump’s treasury secretary, added “one of the biggest surprises for me is just seeing how these entrenched interests, they just keep constricting themselves around the power, around the money, around the systems, and nobody cares.”
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The secretary drew attention to another problem facing the nation’s top taxation bureau.
“Many of the employees are fantastic. It’s this consultant group. They’re like a boa constrictor. They’re like a python,” he said. “They’ve constricted themselves around our government, and the costs are unbelievable. They’re being passed on to the American taxpayer.”
Corcos also claimed around 80% of the $3.5 billion IRS operations and maintenance budget goes to contractors and licenses.
The IRS is one of many federal bureaus and agencies under scrutiny by DOGE and the Trump administration. Since Trump took office, the Musk-led department has aimed at dismantling government bureaucracy, slashing regulations, cutting wasteful spending and restructuring federal agencies.
Recent DOGE actions, however, have been met with mounting scrutiny from many Democrats.
“The entrenched interests, the consultants, the Democrats, mainstream media, they just want to blow this project out of the water,” Bessent told Ingraham. “This is the opposite of government efficiency, not elimination, not extinction. Sam and his crew are making it more efficient to work for the American people. So what’s wrong with it working better, cheaper, faster, and with more privacy?”
Bessent said his top three priorities for the tax collecting bureau are “collections, privacy and customer service,” and he argued “None of those are being well served.”
“We want people to feel satisfied that they are getting the service they deserve, that they’re paying their fair share and not more, not less. And that it’s done quickly, smartly and privately.”
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