Trump’s Ex Chief of Staff: Full Border Wall Would Be ‘Waste of Money’

Plus, how tax season is going at the IRS By Yuval Rosenberg and Michael Rainey Trump’s Former Chief of Staff: Full Border Wall Would Be ‘Waste of Money’ Former White House chief of staff John Kelly says that building a border wall across the full length of the southern border would be a "waste of money." In a wide-ranging, news-making question-and-answer session at Duke University on Wednesday evening, Kelly reportedly said that, while there are areas where a border wall would be effective, “We don’t need a wall from sea to shining sea.” Kelly reportedly also broke with President Trump’s characterization of immigrants from Mexico and Central America. “They’re overwhelmingly not criminals,” Kelly said. “They’re people coming up here for economic purposes. I don’t blame them for that.” A retired four-star general who served as Trump’s Homeland Security secretary before becoming chief of staff, Kelly left the White House at the end of December. At the time, the federal government was in the middle of a partial shutdown that stretched to 35 days in a fight over the president’s demands for border wall funding. In January, as he announced an agreement to end the shutdown, President Trump said: “We do not need 2,000 miles of concrete wall from sea to shining sea. We never did. We never proposed that. We never wanted that, because we have barriers at the border where natural structures are as good as anything that we can build.” Fact-checkers [noted]( that Trump has at various times called for a concrete wall, though he has long said that it need not stretch for 2,000 miles because of natural barriers that exist along the border. The administration’s current plan, including Trump’s declaration of a national emergency, calls for erecting 234 miles of barriers. Read more about Kelly’s latest interview [here]( or [here](. Trump’s Budget Isn’t Out Until Next Week, but Its Already Taking Heat President Trump’s fiscal 2020 budget is set to be released on Monday, with congressional hearings about it to follow throughout the week. But House Democrats aren’t waiting to frame the new budget proposal as using higher deficits as a pretext to slash critical spending. We already know some of what will be in the budget — including proposed cuts to non-defense spending, increases in military spending that rely on what could be called [an accounting gimmick]( and [new rhetoric on deficits]( — thanks in part to a [preview]( published last month by the acting director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget. “As the Administration has already [previewed]( we expect the President to [suddenly sound alarms]( about the [growing deficits]( his tax giveaways to the very wealthy and large corporations helped create, while once again asking hardworking Americans to pick up the tab through cuts to vital services and programs,” the communications office for the House Budget Committee Democrats said in a release. The Budget Committee Democrats, led by Rep. John Yarmuth of Kentucky, said they expect Trump’s budget to include “devastating cuts” to non-defense discretionary spending, new efforts to slash safety net spending on programs like Medicaid and nutrition assistance and unrealistic projections around economic growth and the GOP tax law. They add, however, that they expect Trump’s budget will largely be ignored on Capitol Hill, much as it was last year, as lawmakers work out their own deal to set spending levels for the year. Did You Under-Withhold Last Year? IRS Watchdog Wants Agency to Give You a Break National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson thinks the IRS should provide more relief to people who failed to withhold enough money from their paychecks in 2018. While the tax agency is offering some relief on penalties for under-withholders, Olson said Wednesday that it should offer more assistance as Americans tally up their taxes for the first time under the rules created by the 2017 GOP tax law. Taxpayers faced more uncertainty last year due to the new rules, and most filers did not adjust their withholding levels once the hastily passed law took effect. The Treasury Department estimates that several million more people will find that they under-withheld on their 2018 taxes compared to the year before, thereby owing the IRS money and possibly facing fines for underpayment. (Treasury also estimates that several million fewer taxpayers have over-withheld, and thus will be receiving smaller or no refund checks. The General Accounting Office [wrote about the issue here]( Recognizing that more people will owe payments due to the new tax law, the IRS said in January that it would waive the underpayment penalty for those who paid at least 85 percent of what they owed. In most years, the penalty threshold is 90 percent. Olson [told]( a House Ways and Means Committee subpanel Wednesday that the tax agency should do more: “I think the IRS should do whatever is within its administrative ability to provide relief. If Congress could take some action on that … that would be excellent. I just think that would calm everybody down.” Olson pointed out that Congress waived all withholding penalties in the first year after the 1986 tax-reform bill. Some lawmakers agree. Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA) introduced the [Taxpayer Penalty Protection Act]( last month, which would waive penalties for filers who paid at least 80 percent of what they owe for 2018. The bill, which is supported by 14 House members and has been introduced in the Senate by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), has been endorsed by the non-partisan American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. How the Tax Season Is Going So Far at the IRS In her testimony Wednesday, Olson also provided an update on the IRS’s performance this year. Communications with taxpayers are a real trouble spot, she said, with only 18 percent of phone calls answered in the first four weeks of the 2019 tax filing season. The tax agency is also far behind on responding to correspondence. The 35-day government shutdown had a negative impact on both activities, Olson said, exacerbating long-standing problems with insufficient staffing and funding at the IRS. “I am very concerned that the IRS, after years of not having adequate funding for taxpayer service, that it is at a point that it is stretched so thin that things could go very badly wrong or just simply that taxpayers will give up trying to reach the IRS and not get the assistance that they need,” Olson said. Olson also noted that while the redesigned 1040 tax form is simplifying the process for some filers, “for the majority of taxpayers who will have to complete additional schedules, the new form is likely to create more complexity.” Here’s an overview of some basic statistics on the current tax season from [Olson’s report]( Our best wishes go out to Alex Trebek, who [announced]( yesterday that he has pancreatic cancer, and to Tom Seaver, whose family [announced]( Thursday that he has been diagnosed with dementia. As always, please send your feedback to yrosenberg@thefiscaltimes.com and follow us on Twitter: [@yuvalrosenberg]( [@mdrainey]( and [@TheFiscalTimes](. 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