from the 3-economy-monte dept

It seems that burying reports because he doesn’t like the data within them is becoming a habit for Donald Trump and his administration. This practice didn’t begin during Trump 2.0, of course. He was burying reports he didn’t like all the way back in 2017. More recently, of course, a lot of the games being played to keep the public uninformed of actual information and data have occurred at HHS, where RFK Jr. is all too happy to simply hide data that doesn’t align with his conspiracy theories on topics like COVID vaccines or other medicines.

But if Dear Leader wanted to crow about one thing, it would certainly be the economy. Even as we can see with our own two eyes how Trump policies have worsened the economic situation for millions of Americans overall, Trump’s public statements about the economy all revolve around how great it is, how it’s never been better, and how anyone saying otherwise is a communist illegal immigrant that hates Jesus…or something.

President Trump’s pro-growth agenda has delivered strong economic momentum through tax relief, deregulation, and renewed private-sector investment. In 2025, inflation moderated, job creation accelerated, and consumer confidence rebounded as businesses expanded and wages rose. His America-First economic strategy is restoring prosperity, lowering costs, and positioning the United States for long-term growth.

Unlike other matters of public policy, the economy is essentially math. And anyone who took math through high school will know that it’s not enough to solve the problem; you have to show your work. In this case, showing your work amounts to IRS reporting on the impact on taxation, filed annually after each tax season. But for some unknown reason, the Trump administration is blocking the release of that report this year.

The data from the IRS was initially scheduled to be released in July and updated in September, but the agency hasn’t filed either, Politico reported Wednesday. The IRS claims it is still waiting for approval to release the figures from the Treasury Department. The data will reveal the real impact of Republicans’ tax policies—and whether they fell short of their promises.

There are a couple of reasons that could be behind the delay in reporting. The most charitable of those, seriously, is that Trump’s tax-cut bill, the so-called Big Beautiful Bill, complicated the tax code so badly that the IRS is having a hard time actually gathering up and validating all the data it has.

[One] possible explanation for the delay is that the many carve-outs and exemptions implemented by Trump’s 2025 tax cuts have potentially complicated the tax codes, so the IRS has more trouble producing the numbers in the first place.

Could be, but I doubt it. Occam’s Razor does a lot of work for us here. The explanation requiring the fewest assumptions is also the most obvious: the report isn’t being released because Trump doesn’t like what it says. It also explains why the report hasn’t appeared despite it being months and months overdue. I have very little doubt that if we ever see this report, it won’t be until shortly after the midterm elections that are about to take place.

Nina Olson, a former national taxpayer advocate, accused Frank Bisignano, the IRS’s chief executive officer, of purposefully withholding the data. “I think they are hiding stuff that doesn’t line up with all the crowing the CEO has been doing,” she told Politico.

Data detailing which tax breaks were claimed by people in different income brackets and how much they paid in taxes could become embarrassing if it reveals that the tax burden shifted between income groups or that a suspicious number of people claimed certain breaks, Johnson told Politico.

An explanation for what is going on here should be offered from the administration. Trump’s response would be enlightening. If we were in the economic “golden age” that Trump is constantly claiming we are, he should be doing everything in his power to get this report released before election day. He doesn’t appear to be doing so.

And it’s pretty obvious why.

Filed Under: denial, donald trump, economy, frank bisignano, irs, treasury department