DOGE staffer on outdated IRS infrastructure

A Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staffer spoke out for the first time Thursday about the mess that the IRS is in.

Appearing on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle,” staffer Sam Corcos — who’s already been smeared by the corporate propaganda press as a Russian asset — revealed that the IRS has so many problems that it’s “hard to really grasp the scale” of it.

One problem is the IRS’ antiquated “modernization” program.

“This is a huge program that is currently 30 years behind schedule and it’s already $15 billion over budget,” Corcos said. “The IRS has some pretty legacy infrastructure, and the challenge has been how do we migrate that to a modern system?”

He further noted that major banks that used to run on similar infrastructure have already modernized, leaving the IRS in the dust.

“We’re now 35 years into this program,” he said. “If you ask them now, it’s five years away, and it’s been five years away since 1990. It was supposed to be delivered in 1996, and it’s still five years away.”

Speaking of banks, Corcos also noted the shocking difference between them and the IRS.

“A typical midsize bank will have somewhere between 1 and 200 people in IT [information technology] and they have an operations and maintenance budget in like the $20 million a year range,” he said. “We have 8,000 people in IT, and our operations and maintenance budget is $3.5 billion a year. I don’t really know why yet.”

Another problem with the IRS is its reliance on contractors, who he alleged eat up a large chunk of the agency’s budget.

“I will tell that you 80 percent of that budget goes to contractors and licenses,” he said. “We cannot perform the basic functions of tax collection without paying a toll to all these contractors.”

“You find contracts that are $10, $20, $30, $50 million and you just ask like, why are we doing this? And everyone’s just like, meh, I don’t know. And then you cancel it and then nothing happens. It’s just inertia, has just taken over,” he added.

Speaking alongside Corcos, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent meanwhile claimed that it’s the consultant class that’s preventing the IRS from changing for the better.

“One of the biggest surprises for me is just seeing how these entrenched interests, they just keep constricting themselves around the power, around the money, around the systems, and nobody cares,” he said.

“Many of the employees are fantastic. It’s this consultant group. They’re like a boa constrictor. They’re like a python. They’ve constricted themselves around our government, and the costs are unbelievable. They’re being passed on to the American taxpayer,” he added.

Of course, he continued, the Democrats and their media allies are also doing their best to hold the IRS back.

“The entrenched interests, the consultants, the Democrats, mainstream media, they just want to blow this project out of the water,” he said. “This is the opposite of government efficiency, not elimination, not extinction.”

“Sam and his crew are making it more efficient to work for the American people. So what’s wrong with it working better, cheaper, faster, and with more privacy?” he added.

Bessent further said his top three priorities for the IRS are “collections, privacy and customer service.”

“None of those are being well served,” he said. “We want people to feel satisfied that they are getting the service they deserve, that they’re paying their fair share and not more, not less. And that it’s done quickly, smartly and privately.”

Meanwhile, in related news, IRS acting chief counsel William Paul has been demoted and replaced by IRS attorney Andrew De Mello, who is reportedly much more supportive of DOGE’s critical work.

“The Internal Revenue Service’s acting chief counsel, William Paul, has been removed from his role at the agency and replaced by Andrew De Mello, an attorney in the chief counsel’s office who is deemed supportive of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, according to… pic.twitter.com/KcrracJR9b

— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) March 16, 2025

And as noted earlier, Corcos is already being smeared by the press.

“Corcos’ wife, Varvara Russkova Corcos, spent three years at the VC firm GVA Capital, which was previously exposed as a vehicle for one of the richest oligarchs in Russia, Suleyman Kerimov, to funnel his money into various American companies,” according to Rolling Stone.

“An investigation by the San Francisco Standard detailed the elaborate web of shell companies used by GVA to distribute $28 million of Kerimov’s money into Bay Area investments in 2015 and 2016, revealed in court filings and offshore company databases.”

Senior Staff Writer
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V. Saxena is a staff writer for BizPac Review with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University.

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