Opinion: IRS union for Harris? That's a warning about what her presidency means for taxes.

I had to laugh when I saw that the union that represents employees of the Internal Revenue Service endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris last week.

Surely, that couldn’t be seen as a good thing, right?

A group that advocates for Harris’ presidential bid – “Kamala’s Wins” – on social media seemed to think so.

I’m more skeptical about what the endorsement implies for my pocketbook.

Harris has taken ownership of much of the big spending the Biden-Harris administration has done the past four years, and her thinly sketched economic plan alludes to more of the same if she were to win come November.

That’s clearly great news to the IRS, which has benefited from budget increases under President Joe Biden and Harris. The people who collect your tax dollars clearly hope that would continue under a Harris presidency.

That should make the rest of us scared to death.

'Kamala Harris is the clear choice'

Of all the major government departments, the IRS is the most disliked. Shocking, I know.

Half of Americans don’t approve of the agency, according to a survey from the Pew Research Center.

There’s a reason for that. Most people who work don’t love forking over their hard-earned money to the government.

Yet, the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents workers in the IRS and 34 other government agencies, thinks Harris will benefit them. The IRS alone employs more than 80,000 full-time workers.

“When it comes to treating federal employees with respect, valuing their service and investing in their work, Kamala Harris is the clear choice,” NTEU President Doreen Greenwald said in a statement. “She shares our values and our commitment to making sure that the federal government works for all Americans. She has been a strong advocate for the issues that matter most to federal employees: fair pay, paid family leave, adequate agency funding and staffing, and robust collective bargaining rights.”

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In its endorsement, the NTEU mentioned the $80 billion funding increase for the IRS in 2022, in the (misleadingly named) Inflation Reduction Act, that the agency could use over 10 years to hire thousands more employees.

Some of that funding was cut in debt ceiling negotiations last year, but much of it remains.

Harris is working hard for union votes

Harris recently spent Labor Day in Detroit, where she held a rally with a bunch of union bigwigs, from both the private and public sectors, including the leaders of the UAW and American Federation of Teachers.

Unions wield a lot of influence, given their sizable political donations – almost all to Democrats. While only 6% of the private workforce is unionized, more than 30% of government workers are union members.

That’s pretty offputting as a taxpayer who has to foot the bill for these government employees, many of whom get better (and more costly) benefits than workers in the private sector.

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Harris’ promises to unions, including the NTEU, come at a time when the country faces a debt crisis.

For the first time, the federal government spent more than $1 trillion this year on interest payments for our $35 trillion national debt (and counting). That is not sustainable, given other pressures on the budget, including Social Security and Medicare shortfalls.

Yet, it hasn’t stopped the Biden-Harris administration from spending like crazy, forcing the Congressional Budget Office to significantly adjust its 2024 fiscal year deficit projections to nearly $2 trillion – the largest expenditures outside of a crisis.

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Americans are about to experience a rude awakening when these budget realities reach a breaking point. Higher taxes (much higher) will be unavoidable.

That might make the IRS happy. It’s bad news for the rest of us.

Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at USA TODAY. Contact her at [email protected] or on X, formerly Twitter: @Ingrid_Jacques

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Opinion: Harris is coming for your money. IRS union backing proves it