The stimulus and corruption

IBD Editorial:

Having spent more than $3 trillion on stimulus and bailouts so far, the government apparently can't be sure it's not being massively defrauded. So much for transparency and accountability.

During the transition early this year, President Obama vowed to "restore the American people's trust in their government by making government more open and transparent."

Yet, it's quite possible that this year's $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — also known as the "stimulus" — will turn into the largest fraud in history, and we'll never know.

The reason: It's become impossible to verify why those who are getting the stimulus money are getting it.

A new report from the Treasury Department's Inspector General for Tax Administration counts 56 tax provisions in the bill having a potential cost of $325 billion. Of those, 20 are tax breaks for individuals and 36 are for businesses.

The problem, the Inspector General says, is the IRS can't verify taxpayer eligibility "for the majority of Recovery Act tax benefits and credits." For individual taxpayers, 13 of the 20 benefits and credits can't be verified; for businesses, it's 26 of 36.

...

This is not the kind of transparency promised by Obama, and if it is then it was a illusory promise.

It will take some digging to find the extent of the problem. So far, of the 471 complaints to the "RAT Board" only 14 investigations have been opened.