Yesterday the Daily Caller posted an article about Congressional efforts to agree on a tax deal. We are currently dealing with a lame-duck Congress that does not seem to be able to agree on anything. Hopefully, the new Congress will do better.

The article reports:

President Barack Obama quietly killed a draft tax-cut because the GOP leadership wouldn’t agree to his demand that valuable tax breaks be given to millions of illegal immigrants, according to a Politico article about the secret negotiations.

Just before Thanksgiving, “the deal fell apart just as it seemed to be coming together… [because] Republicans worried undocumented immigrants targeted by [Obama’s Nov. 21 amnesty] would begin claiming the credits,”

The tax bill (now dead) was supposed to extend the temporary tax breaks that Congress traditionally extends at the end of every year. Because of the possibility of extending tax breaks to illegal immigrants, the tax breaks were not extended, and all Americans will face increased taxes next year.

So what is this actually about? The Earned Income Tax Credit Program has been plagued by fraud for years. In May 2014, the Washington Examiner reported:

The Treasury Department has released its latest report on the fight against widespread fraud in the Earned Income Tax Credit program. The problem is, fraud is still winning. And there’s not even much of a fight.

“The Internal Revenue Service continues to make little progress in reducing improper payments of Earned Income Tax Credits,” a press release from Treasury’s inspector general for Tax Administration says. “The IRS estimates that 22 to 26 percent of EITC payments were issued improperly in Fiscal Year 2013. The dollar value of these improper payments was estimated to be between $13.3 billion and $15.6 billion.”

Now Congress is battling over whether or not to extend the Earned Income Tax Credit to illegal immigrants. What are they thinking?

The article at the Daily Caller reminds us that businesses support President Obama’s Immigration policy because it will drive down wages and increase their profits. This is the result of the policy of a President who complains about wage inequality.

The Daily Caller also reports:

Obama is offering work-permits, $2 trillion in taxpayer benefits and a quick route to citizenship to at least 4 million of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the country. He is also trying to win business support for his plan by boosting the inflow of guest-workers sought by blue-chip companies.

This is not the way to build the American economy.