Naturally, the frustration with bureaucracy goes beyond the benefits. Many people can understand that they have difficulty navigating the tax system, and are often forced to use paid services to do their job. For years, companies like Intuit pressures to keep government of offering free filing tools, even though they have made millions using their software to file their taxes. The intuition was recently indicted by the Federal Trade Commission for using deceptive marketing tactics, allegedly advertising free services that most people would ultimately not qualify for.

Finally, in 2024, the Internal Revenue Service introduced and piloted its own free file system in 12 states: Direct File. The IRS says that this coming fiscal year, the service will be made available to people in 24 states. When the IRS decided to make DirectFile permanent in 2024, Intuit stock fell. Here, the government didn’t just walk away and acquiesce to the industry’s demands, as those who want deregulation would say, because it’s necessary: ​​helping workers felt like government intervention to compete with the industry. (Write for The New Republic, Bryce Covert reported that those who were eligible to participate in the DirectFile pilot program gave it rave reviews.)

When people try to access benefits and other government services, they are seen as a burden on the state and therefore must prove their worth by jumping through endless hoops. Meanwhile, deregulation is presented as a tool to help ordinary people get by, when in reality it is simply a channel allowing greater exploitation. It’s quite possible that as the Republican trio is sworn in, ordinary people will be asked to jump even higher, while the bar for regulatory compliance is lowered for businesses.