Since he began his presidential campaign, Senator Ted Cruz has insisted he will abolish the Internal Revenue Service, the dreaded IRS. Instead, he will have a 10 percent flat tax on individuals and a 16 percent tax on business, which “Lets every American fill out his or her taxes on a postcard.”

Hopefully we would send these in envelopes, because I personally do not want my social security number on a postcard.

To begin with, I will admit that he phrases it on his website as “abolishes the IRS as we know it,” and proceeds to say he will house the remaining personnel in a smaller division of the Department of Treasury.

First of all, the IRS is already a bureau of the Department of the Treasury. Secondly, one has to wonder just how many jobs Senator Cruz intends to cut; over the past 20 years the IRS has gone from 117,945 employees in 1992 to 82,203 in the FY 2016. Of those employees, about 15 percent are revenue agents, with another 3 percent as special agents, who conduct criminal investigations. 6 percent are revenue officers, who work to collect delinquent tax payments and track down those who haven’t filed a return. That makes up 24 percent of the agency, or close to 20,000 workers. Even with a “simple” tax code, some people are not going to pay or file those postcards, so that’s at least 6 percent you need to keep. And as far as the other 18 percent goes, even with a simpler corporate tax, businesses are still likely to try to hide profits and keep them abroad, so they are still necessary. Plus, remember that Al Capone was only ever caught for tax evasion.

Ted Cruz saying "We should abolish the IRS," and making terrible jokes involving the IRS and immigration.

The other three-quarters of the agency is made of clerks, accountants, programmers and workers in call centers. 10 service centers around the country process returns sent by mail (all those postcards). Some of these locations could be closed, but the post cards would need to go somewhere.

Those locations would need employees to make sure the equipment was working and to clean the facility. Presumably these postcards are transferred into electronic form and someone needs to make sure that those records are accurate. If electronic filing is continued, someone needs to do IT work to make sure the website is running and someone needs to make sure internal networks and computers work.

If people can get extensions or set up payment plans, there need to be workers who are trained to handle them. Someone has to be there to take phone calls from tax payers who don’t understand how to file taxes, especially if you are revamping the entire tax system.

The workers of the IRS are necessary to have a functioning tax collection system, from the janitors to the agents. Ted Cruz may claim that he can abolish the IRS with his new flat tax, but this simply is not a reasonable thing to do.

Beyond the practicalities, beyond the effects on the average taxpayer if they no longer have anyone to turn to to help, there are also the IRS employees themselves.

Take Mary Ann Thompson, who will retire this summer. She said of working at the IRS center at Ogden, “I’d recommend that anyone take this career path. (The IRS) has been a great employer." Lou Ann Hirsch worked there for six years in the 1960s, took a break to raise a family, and then returned to have a 20-year career, starting in 1981.

The IRS is a good paying job, one that gives you the freedom and flexibility to raise a family. There are health benefits, paid vacation days, paid sick leave, and the ability to make your schedule work for you. In the first California U.S. Senate debate, Duf Sundheim repeated his claim that, “The fastest growing path to the middle class is a government job.” If you want a stable job, it is a good place to work, although hiring freezes have kept them from replacing needed employees.

Obviously the Republican Party is in favor of smaller government, but when they and their candidates speak derisively about government jobs, it hurts America. We need people who are willing to look over tax returns, just as we need people to regulate lead levels in water, or to put out fires. Yet this rhetoric leads to IRS employees getting booed on game shows and sent ridiculous things along with the tax returns, like mustard on checks and vacuum cleaner waste.

An IRS job is not a glamorous position to have, but it is an incredibly necessary one in our society. The fact that tax policy is so complicated is not their fault, that lies with Congress. The IRS, as a part of the executive branch, executes the tax code, they do not create it. Every year they help taxpayers figure out their taxes, set up payment plans,and make sure that big businesses are paying what they should. That money goes into paying for defense, for schools, for Yosemite. Making sure that people are willing to work there is important: the government could fund nothing without collecting money. And Ted Cruz should pay attention to this: without the IRS, United States senators would not get paid.

So go ahead Ted Cruz, implement a regressive tax if you can, but stop demonizing the IRS and its employees. They are far more important to this country than you seem to realize.