The days following April 15 (and our tax bill, again) I question the government behemoth and how it takes so much of MY money to feed it. My parents struggled financially; they couldn’t send me to college. But I received a great debate scholarship, worked year round and went to grad school too. That self-sufficiency, success model that my husband and I followed means that by 2004 we were increasingly penalized for our success. We can’t make all we can to give all we can to effective charities. We can do that with inefficient, valueless government agencies.
Then John Fund of the WSJ reminds me that welfare reform is working and caseloads, i.e., system cost, is down. Private charity, resourced with volunteers, still costs lots less than government programs.
But related social services, where volunteers and private charity aren’t applicable are hungrier than ever. The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), IRS cash assistance for the poor, draws a staggering $37 billion. The taxpayer can really stagger when learning that government audits determine that nearly 1/3 of EITC recipients don’t qualify. Add to that the revelation that recipients are securing Refund Anticipation Loans with the EITC.
Perhaps before the IRS goes trolling for more charity dollars, as they encourage Senator Grassley to do with increased regulation, they should be looking at the food bill for their own EITC behemoth.
