It may not be making headline news at the moment, but conservative activists in Washington are again “standing up for the middle class” by vehemently opposing the Biden administration’s plan to increase the IRS budget by $10 billion so that enforcement efforts may be improved. Apparently they wish us to believe that instead of going after people with multiple bank accounts in the Caymans who do a lot of business in cash, the IRS will mercilessly audit John and Jane Q. Public for stray pennies to close the federal budget deficit. Here, they are very much in favor of defunding the police, so to speak.

I don’t agree with this dark vision, but I’m only one person. As such, I have a compromise proposal.

If conservatives don’t want to throw tons of money at their least favorite government agency, I understand. But there is a way we can improve our tax collection efforts without spending one dime of our own money.

Instead of increasing the IRS budget, Congress should recognize the Second Amendment rights of its employees and allow them to bear arms on duty within the legal limits of whatever state they are working in. The Supreme Court eventually will, anyway, the way things are going, since it has already long since recognized that government employees do not completely shed their First and Fourth Amendment rights as a condition of their employment. This way we’ll save money on litigation as well.

Our tax compliance rate is already, at 88 percent, one of the best in the world, but imagine how much better it will be when tax cheats see the IRS agents coming with their AR-15s locked and loaded and realize that maybe they don’t want to rock around the Glock tonight.