National Taxpayers Union STILL Repeating 16,000 IRS Agents Lie

The anti-tax crusaders over at the National Taxpayers Union (who would like to do away with the IRS altogether) won't let the thorough debunking of a talking point stop them from repeating it. In a post earlier in the week, the group made the fallacious claim that the IRS will hire an additional 16,000 agents in order to enforce provisions of the health care reform legislation.  "We need our elected officials to stand up and oppose this drastic increase in the size of the IRS," the post said.   

Enter Rep. Randy Forbes (R-VA), an equally naive legislator, who has introduced the Prevent IRS Overreach Act of 2010.  His legislation prohibits the IRS from hiring anyone whose position would include the "enforcement of any provision of, or amendment made by, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010."

The NTU and Forbes are equally misleading their readers and constituents.  This claim was shown to be "baseless" almost a month ago.  Nevertheless, the lie continues to spread.  But as the nonpartisan FactCheck.org put it, "[H]owever often it is repeated, it is still false."

*UPDATE: The National Taxpayers Union disagrees with FactCheck.org's assertion, arguing that it "may not give a complete picture." While NTU concedes FactCheck.org made some important points, it believe the ones cited above "remain speculative and premature." See their response here.