To Boldly Go Where No Tax Dollars Have Gone Before

During one of the most challenging fiscal times in the United States unemployment spiked and citizens were told by bureaucrats and politicians to be smart about how they spent their money.  It appears that the government officials weren’t taking their own advice.  In 2010, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) funded two “training” videos that cost taxpayers $60,000.  The problem is that these taxpayer-funded training videos involved Star Trek and Gilligan’s Island parodies.  CBS News first broke the story and opened the article with an excerpt from the taxpayer-funded film:

“Space: the final frontier
These are the voyagers of the Starship Enterprise Y
Its never-ending mission is to seek out new tax forms
To explore strange new regulations
To boldly go where no government employee has gone before.”

It’s a toss-up between what’s most offensive. The fact that the government found it appropriate to fund a six minute video of IRS agents or the text of the parody that asserts the IRS’ “never-ending mission to seek out new tax forms, to explore strange new regulations…”

Getting a hold of this video was no simple feat.  “CBS News filed a Freedom of Information request asking for the video after the IRS earlier refused to turn over a copy to the congressional committee that oversees tax issues.”  That’s right, the IRS refused to share this video with Congress.  Upon learning of this video, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Boustany, Jr. (R-LA) noted that “the video was produced in the IRS’s own television studio in New Carrollton, MD. The studio may have cost taxpayers more than $4 million dollars last year alone.”  Let’s pause right there, the IRS needs/has a TV studio?!?

This video hasn’t gone unnoticed by the star of Star Trek.  According to The Hill, “William Shatner said he is ‘appalled’ by the Internal Revenue Services’ spoof of ‘Star Trek’ — the television show that made him famous for his portrayal of Captain James Kirk… ‘So I watched that IRS video. I am appalled at the utter waste of U.S. tax dollars,’ Shatner tweeted Tuesday Morning.”

If you’re willing to give the IRS a pass for the Star Trek video, consider that the Star Trek waste is just one of two recordings.  CBS News reports, “A separate skit based on the television show ‘Gilligan’s Island’ was also recorded. The IRS told Congress the cost of producing the two videos was thought to be about $60,000 dollars.”  As if these egregious examples of waste could even be defensible, this didn’t deter IRS Acting Commissioner Steven Miller from trying to rationalize the cost. In a statement he explained that, “The space parody video from 2010 is not reflective of overall IRS video efforts, which provide critical information to taxpayers and cost-effective employee training critical to running the nation’s tax system. In addition, the IRS has instituted tough new standards for videos to prevent situations similar to the 2010 video.”

There’s no reason why you should stop loving Star Trek, but you should consider a trip into outer space if you think the IRS’ parody is a good, responsible way for the government to spend your tax dollars.  The IRS is one of the most feared agencies in the federal government and as Tax Day approaches, taxpayers find nothing to laugh about in these videos.