Stephen Moore writes at FoxNews.com that 2015 is a good year to “fire” the Internal Revenue Service.

Imagine what would happen if a retail store or company like Best Buy or Home Depot announced it has plans to slash customer service, that it will make people stand in lines for at least a half hour, and that any customer due a refund will have to wait several weeks.

Oh, and it may not be able to prevent identity theft.

That company would probably soon find itself in chapter 11 bankruptcy as shoppers fled to other banks or stores or restaurants where they can get first class service. That’s what America is about and every businessman and woman knows the customer always comes first.

But the Internal Revenue Service now says that taxpayers had better get used to shabby service from the tax collection agency. And the IRS is hardly an agency known for warm and friendly service to begin with.

Complaining about belt tightening budget cuts, this week IRS Commissioner John Koskinen lectured: “People who file paper tax returns could wait an extra week—or possibly longer—to see their refund. Taxpayers with errors or questions on their returns that require additional manual review will also face delays.” It says it will cut enforcement efforts to root out identity theft.

Another IRS official went even further, suggesting wait times of at least half an hour to get through on the 1-800 help line. She warned that people who call in might want to bring some knitting, and that by the time you get through to a live human being, “you might be able to knit a sock.” And they call this a “help” line!

There’s not much taxpayers can do about this because after all, the IRS is a government monopoly. You can’t file your tax return or have it processed by anyone else. Though it is interesting that the president of H&R Block, one of the nation’s largest tax preparation firms, said on Fox News on Wednesday that “this is a story that will obviously help our business.”

Congress needs to hold the IRS accountable and demand the firing of Mr. Kostiken because he has he admitted openly he can’t do his job. The IRS is nearly an $11 billion a year agency with some 100,000 employees. Congress wants to cut its budget by less than 4 percent and the agency says it can’t function. During the recession many businesses took cuts of 30 and 40 percent and they did it by becoming more efficient and cutting waste.