Sunday, December 14, 2014

Obama opens fraud-ridden benefits programs to illegal immigrants

Obama opens fraud-ridden benefits programs to illegal immigrants | WashingtonExaminer.com:
President Obama's unilateral executive action on immigration will make hundreds of thousands, perhaps more than a million, illegal immigrants eligible for federal transfer payments. 
That will be done primarily through two widely used programs — the Earned Income Tax Credit, or EITC, and the Additional Child Tax Credit, or ACTC.
As it turns out, those two programs are already among the most corrupt and fraud-ridden in the entire federal government.
A newly-released report from the inspector general of the Internal Revenue Service confirms that the EITC is plagued by fraud (which was already well known) and also reveals for the first time that the ACTC is even worse.
In fact, for many of those affected, "willing to pay your fair share of taxes" actually means "willing to accept an assistance check from the government."
......Their growth has been extraordinary in recent years — payments increased 40 percent from 2007 to 2012 alone.
And now both are beset by staggering levels of fraud.

According to the inspector general, the IRS paid out $63 billion in EITC benefits in 2013.
Of that, 24 percent, or about $15 billion, was given improperly to people not qualified to receive it.
That improper payment rate has been enough to qualify the EITC as a "high risk" program for years.

No comments: