CNBC News reported yesterday that more than $9 million of the tax credits for homebuyers went to nearly 1,300 prison inmates. 

According to the article:

“In all, more than 14,100 taxpayers wrongly received at least $26.7 million in tax credits that were meant to boost the nation’s slumping housing markets, said the report by J. Russell George, the Treasury Department’s inspector general for tax administration.”

The article also reported that 87 IRS employees may have improperly claimed the credit.

At a time when taxpayers are dealing with unemployement, tighter budgets, and an economy  that does not seem to be creating jobs, the last thing we need is to find out that the taxes were are paying are being badly mishandled.  This is a further example of the fact that the government has gotten too big and cannot police itself.  We need a smaller government with more transparency so that the taxpayers know where their money is going.