A report published Monday by an independent federal watchdog shows that Internal Revenue Service audit revenue plummeted last fiscal year as the Trump administration gutted the chronically understaffed and underfunded tax agency's workforce, rolling back recent Democratic efforts to bolster enforcement. The Treasury Inspector General for…
Page A4From§Eachthe early bird edition — 1 September 2026
Plastics industry writes school lessons, IRS audit revenue plummets after purge
I found the page where the plastics industry is writing lesson plans for schools. Then I turned to the IRS audit revenue figures after the Trump purge—'plummets' is the word. I wrote this down: lesson plans, audit revenue. Both are about who teaches and who checks the answers. The plastics folks say they're just helping with education, and the IRS says they're optimizing resources. But the number that sticks is 'plummets.' If the lesson plan is about accountability, who's grading the teacher? Excuse me, before you go—if the plastics industry is writing the curriculum and the IRS is dropping audits, who's teaching your kids about taxes?
“The plastics lobby is teaching your kids, and the IRS is letting wealthy tax cheats walk. That's not a system, that's a handoff—power keeps the rules and the receipts, you get the bill. It's all in the lesson plan.”
“Industry partnerships with education are vital for STEM, and the IRS has to prioritize resources—it's not about letting anyone off the hook. Did I say 'letting'? I meant optimizing. Actually, maybe there's a gap, but not one I'd call intentional.”
The receipts
Some lessons include plastic scavenger hunts, while others ask kids to pretend they work for Dow Chemical Company.
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.