Republicans blasted Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s Pennsylvania road trip to promote an unpopular Internal Revenue Service (IRS) program last week, saying the visit brings to mind former President Ronald Reagan’s famous adage: “the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”

Yellen went to Pennsylvania with Democratic Pennsylvania Reps. Brendan Boyle and Mary Gay Scanlon, to “announce that Pennsylvania will offer [the IRS’s] Direct File to its residents in the 2025 filing season.” Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who was then at the height of vice presidential speculation, as they sought to turn IRS tax collection into a political winner for Democrats in a key swing state. 

Rep. Kevin Hern (R., Okla.), warned the Treasury Department that “this isn’t the political win [Yellen] thinks it is. It won’t help taxpayers in Pennsylvania or anywhere else.” 

Many Democrats have embraced the IRS’s Direct File program, viewing it as, in the words of the agency, a “new free tax tool to file your federal taxes directly with the IRS.” Republicans disagree. Sen. John Barrasso (R., Wyo.) warned in a lengthy interview with the Reporter that “the IRS wants to be the tax collector, auditor, enforcer, and now tax preparer — a judge, jury, and Lord High Executioner,” via Direct File.

Barrasso recently led a group of Senate Republicans in criticizing the IRS’s “recent unilateral and unauthorized action to create a permanent Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Direct File tax preparation program.”

Some investigations suggest that Direct File isn’t as cheap or as popular as the IRS claims. Ways and Means Committee Republicans previously cited a report by Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration which found that the “IRS surveys sent to taxpayers about the agency’s proposed e-file system may have been improperly designed to mislead Americans about their ability to file state taxes via direct e-file, and that the IRS may have downplayed the cost of implementation by billions of dollars.”

Rep. Jason Smith (R., Mo.), chair of the Ways and Means Committee, told the Reporter that “the American people already have numerous options for filing free tax returns at their disposal and neither want nor asked for a government controlled and run Direct File program because they distrust the IRS acting as their tax preparer, filer, and auditor.” 

Smith also said that President Joe Biden’s “decision to go around Congress to unilaterally build a new program and now expand it to Pennsylvania is just the next step in their plan to insert the IRS into the everyday lives of all Americans

Hern, a member of the Ways and Means Committee, expressed to the Reporter similar concerns about Yellen, who he said “wants the IRS to be your tax collector, tax auditor, and now your tax filer.” Rep. Claudia Tenney (R., N.Y.) said that Yellen’s push “sucks” and that it, “along with the elimination of cash transactions that counters Trump’s no tax on tips initiative,” are losing propositions for American taxpayers.

Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R., Texas) connected Yellen’s trip to a broader radicalism she spots in the White House. “Kamala Harris has a well-documented record as a far-left extremist who wants to destroy American jobs while raising taxes and inflation on hard working families,” she said. “Given Kamala’s radical record, it’s no surprise the administration is trying to run cover for her by providing a new ‘free’ service to swing state voters. Direct File is nothing more than an excuse to supercharge the IRS at great cost to taxpayers.”

In an interview with the Reporter, Rep. Tom Emmer (R., Minn.), the GOP’s Whip, cautioned that if Vice President Kamala Harris is elected in November, Yellen could be replaced by either now-Securities and Exchange Commission chair, Gary Gensler, or Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass).