Joel Hefley: “the earned income tax credit [EITC], is designed to help workers not poor enough for welfare, and may have been a good…”

“the earned income tax credit [EITC], is designed to help workers not poor enough for welfare, and may have been a good idea at first, but it has turned into a bureaucracy out of control. In hearings last year, both the Treasury secretary and the IRS Commissioner admitted that the fraud and overpayment rate in the $20 billion program could be as high as 45 percent. Get that: $9 billion in waste. It should come as no surprise that the IRS actually made the problem worse. The agency's 1992 experiment that gave about $400 million in EITC benefits to those who had not applied but seemed entitled only created a monster: $175 million of erroneous payments. Part of it was poorly recorded paperwork. After all, 90 percent of the benefit checks, up to $2,500 each, go to those who pay no income taxes in the first place-- including illegal aliens and prisoners. For wasting money through a nearsighted bureaucracy, the earned income tax credit get my Porker of the Week Award.”