Editorial Roundup
Pork-barrel politics alive and well
Jeff Smith, the Republican chairman of the Ways and Means Committee in Mississippi’s House of Representatives, may get a slap on the wrist from his party’s leadership for saying it, but he confirmed what Capitol observers know to be true.
When the Legislature, in an election year, goes on a borrowing binge to fund special projects, the ones that get awarded often have more to do with politics than they do with merit.
“They were trying to help some of the members that are going to have tough races,” said Smith when asked to respond to complaints from Democratic lawmakers that most of the pet projects that got a slice of the $360 million are in Republican-held districts.
You could write this off as just the way politics works, and that Democrats did the same thing when they controlled state government.
Remember, however, the Republicans said they would change all that, that they would bring fiscal discipline to the Capitol and represent the interests of the taxpayer, not themselves.
Some things just don’t change.
Tim Kalich
Editor and Publisher
Greenwood Commonwealth
IRS needs lesson from Willie Sutton
American folklore has it that when a reporter asked 20th century bank robber Willie Sutton why he robbed banks, Sutton replied, “Because that’s where the money is.”
Although Sutton denied coming up with the pithy phrase, its point is well-taken: Put your effort where you are likely to get the biggest result.
The Internal Revenue Service doesn’t appear, however, to follow Sutton’s Law when it comes to audits. It is investing a disproportionate share of its investigative resources on those with the least amount of money.
According to a study cited recently in a report by the nonprofit news organization ProPublica, more than a third of all IRS audits are of individuals who receive the Earned Income Tax Credit, the welfare payment that the federal government gives to the working poor.
In fact, Mississippi’s Humphreys County — with a median household income of just $26,000 — gets the most scrutiny of any county in the nation for tax cheats. The chance of being audited there is 51 percent greater than it is in the richest county in America, Loudoun County in Virginia.
ProPublica says the reason for the disparity is because of pressure from Republicans in Congress to catch those who are dishonestly claiming the Earned Income Tax Credit.
Certainly, there is tax fraud by the poor. Cheating on income taxes crosses all class lines.
Strictly from a cost-benefit analysis, however, it makes little sense for the IRS to focus where there’s not much to be gotten. It’s like Willie Sutton robbing piggy banks instead of the real thing.
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