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Posted to alt.atheism,alt.religion.christian,free.usenet,alt.home.repair,alt.politics.homosexuality
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The IRS Scandal.
In article , "Alex W."
wrote:
On Sat, 01 Jun 2013 07:19:58 -0500, Free Lunch wrote:
On Fri, 31 May 2013 21:34:08 -0700, (Jason) wrote in
alt.atheism:
In article , Free Lunch
wrote:
On Fri, 31 May 2013 19:22:25 -0700, (Jason) wrote in
alt.atheism:
In article , Free Lunch
wrote:
...
How much are you willing to spend in enforcement to avoid $1,000 in
fraud?
About 5 to 10 percent of the money spent on the food stamp program.
So you want to spend billions in enforcement to avoid a thousand in
waste. How foolish of you.
I meant to investigate cases of possible fraud and abuse.
But fraud and abuse are far less than 5% of the cost now.
Which may be true but is immaterial to the debate since this
is a political issue, and politics is largely the art of
wrestling with and managing public perception. Similar
examples are a perceived crime wave when actual figures show
a downturn in crime, or the view that illegal immgirants are
welfare spongers when the evidence shows they are by and
large extremely hard workers, or the widespread belief that
America spends huge sums on third-world fireign aid when the
actual sums involved are only a tiny part of the budget.
Even if politicians wanted to deal with these issues
rationally and on the basis of facts, their voters demand
action on the basis of their perception and enforce this at
the ballot box.
Is the alternative to ignore the issue of fraud and abuse and just allow
it to happen?
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