The head of the Internal Revenue Service ordered all its facilities to review and solidify their security procedures as Republican politicians amp up a hate campaign against the agency, angering their base who have a tendency toward violence, Politico reports.

Numerous Republicans–including those irresponsible ones in Congress–have spread lies about a planned 10-year, $80 billion expansion of the IRS workforce which outlines hiring 85,000 employees.  Although the Republicans know better, they’re describing the entire group as “special agents” when they include administrative, data services, auditors and various other positions, and the GOP is also stoking fear in their base by claiming they’re being hired to target working families.

Since the heyday of the Tea Party in 2009, Republicans have been openly hostile to the IRS and have gutted the agency.  During the Trump administration, the specialty category of auditors, investigators and administrators that handle complicated returns for exceptionally wealthy people were, for all intents and purposes, shut down as agents were reassigned and retirements weren’t replaced. 

IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig said “an abundance of misinformation and false social media postings” have led to a significant jump in the number of threats against the agency and its employees.

Republicans have created threats from the IRS to make their followers fearful and bitter, once again setting off the likelihood of an attack on the government.  The senior Republican Senator, Chuck Grassley of Nebraska, asked rhetorically on Fox News recently if and IRS “strike force” would be sent “to “shoot some small business person in Iowa….”