In response to "IRS pays out billions in fraudulent refunds" (The Maui News, Aug. 3): It's frustrating enough to watch the waste that goes on in our federal government, with senators and representatives from both parties feathering the nests of their districts and elsewhere spending taxpayer dollars on bridges to nowhere, prostitutes in Vietnam, $6 million for a shipwreck museum in Michigan and the list goes on.
On the other hand, the IRS seems to have legions of hard-nosed, glass-eyed tax collectors who relentlessly hassle citizens over delinquent tax payments and other slight inadvertent miscues, but apparently not enough agents to prevent identity thieves from stealing $21 billion and for good measure another $5 billion in refund checks, all in 2011.
Voters might better demand of candidates. Solve these travesties as opposed to disclosing tax returns or a valid birth certificate.
David L. Florence
Haiku
