Biden’s IRS Chases Chump Change

The amount of improper pandemic payments dwarfs what its new agents stand to recoup for taxpayers

By Phil Gramm and Jodey Arrington. Excerpts:

"The Government Accountability Office estimates the federal government made $528 billion in improper payments in 2021 and 2022. Some were the result of honest mistakes. But many swindlers saw opportunity in the blizzard of pandemic relief programs, filing false claims and outright stealing taxpayer money. As astonishing as half a trillion dollars in estimated improper payments is, the real cost of the unprecedented mismanagement and fraud is much higher. GAO numbers exclude improper payments in major programs like Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and food stamps because the federal agencies running those programs didn’t bother reporting them, despite being required to do so by law."

"fraudulent payments made under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program alone could be as high as $400 billion, only $5 billion of which has been recovered."

"Julie Su, who ran the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance at the Labor Department, has been offered a promotion. Mr. Biden has nominated her to be labor secretary."

"Estimated overpayment rates [of food stamps] rose from the prepandemic average of 4.2% to 9.8% in 2022. The actual fraud rate is worse, since the food-stamp program doesn’t count overpayments of up to $48 a month as improper payments."

"in 2021 that same Congress provided only $2 billion to deal with fraud in pandemic-era programs—and the administration didn’t use most of it."

"in 2022 alone the IRS itself made an estimated $25.4 billion in improper payments in only three programs: earned-income tax credits, additional child tax credits and American opportunity tax credits. The GAO estimates that the level of improper payments by the IRS in these programs runs as high as 28% of all payments made."

"78% to 90% of the money extracted from underreported income would come from those making less than $200,000 a year. Only 4% to 9% would come from those making more than $500,000 a year."

"Nearly half of the audits would hit Americans making $75,000 a year or less."