Pretty Soon it Adds to Real Money!

This week’s Golden Fleece Award goes to that champion of Golden Fleecers, the U.S. government, which, in 2014, made $124 billion in “improper payments.”

“Improper payments” include tossing your money to someone who shouldn’t get it, sending the wrong amount to the right person, or just plain losing it.

These blown bucks are spread over 124 programs, but the champion is the Earned Income Tax Credit. This gem of a scheme, which takes your tax dollars and gives them to people who work but don’t earn much money, threw 27% of its payments down a rat hole.

The Government Accountability Office calls this mess a “material weakness in internal control.” We call it “sad but highly predictable.”

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