Senator Orrin Hatch (R, UT), in a Wall Street Journal op-ed last Friday, had this tidbit while writing more generally about the IRS.
Look at the Earned Income Tax Credit. Whether you like this refundable credit or not, the Treasury Department’s inspector general for tax administration reported in April that improper payments account for 21% to 25% of total EITC payments in 2012. Take the percentage of improper EITC payments and apply it to the approximate $1 trillion we’ll spend on ObamaCare premium credits in the decade beginning 2014.
And on funding for a program the IRS is supposed to administer, he added this:
already soaring budget for the [Obamacare] premium subsidies….
I’ve asked Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius to explain the massive jump in costs for premium subsidies. The projected figure for subsidy expenditures has gone from nearly $16 billion in the president’s 2012 budget up to nearly $22 billion in his 2014 budget.
The IRS is not capable of handling its own business. How is going to be able to handle any other business?