Suppose you leave your garbage can open starting tonight? Do you think maybe a few critters will dive in?

Your government does the equivalent. Only it’s a bin of money. Yours, if you pay taxes. And the word has spread that the lid’s off the bin.

So say the government’s auditors. They looked at our program for helping our working poor. Our earned-income tax credit program. (That is a polite way of saying “handout program”. People get tax refunds from the IRS. Refunds of money they never paid in. Pennies and more from the heaven known as Washington.)

The auditors happened to detect a problem. Government pays ten dollars to the poor. Three are a mistake. Treasury Inspector General reckons the figure is closer to four. Or maybe five.

Maybe five. Yes, maybe half the money government doles out in this program is a goof-up. Paid to someone who does not qualify. Or to a fraud. Or to a dead person. Or to the family dog.

Meanwhile the White House and many in Congress call for more handouts. They insist we need to dramatically expand this program. They are like the guys who pay $1 each for a truckload of watermelons. They sell them for 89 cents per. At the end of the week they realize they have lost money. Their solution for next week is to buy two truckloads.

The watermelon guys are in a joke. Whereas the government guys are…well, I guess they are in a joke too.