IRS To No Longer “Waste” Money on Training

There is an aspect of the latest IRS scandal that I find absurd:

IRS spokeswoman Michelle Eldridge said Sunday that spending on large agency conferences with 50 or more participants fell from $37.6 million in the 2010 budget year to $4.9 million in 2012.

I have no idea whether 220 conferences costing $50 million over 3 years is too much or too little as far as a budget to reasonably train the IRS staff to enforce a very complicated tax code. OK, there may have been a few excesses here and there but most tax directors will tell you that the IRS desperately needs to increase the abilities of their staff. And yet the politicians and even Ms. Eldridge are arguing that slashing the training budget is a sign of good management. Penny wise – pound foolish.