“The problem is, fraud is still winning. And there’s not even much of a fight.”

Byron York writes here about the massive multibillion-dollar fraud that is entrenched in the Earned Income Tax Credit program.

“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.”

The inspector general’s use of the phrase “little progress” was too generous. In fact, EITC fraud in the latest period was unchanged from earlier years.

A moral society puts in place a social safety net for the poor and vulnerable. It is stories like this one — massive fraud — that diminishes support for efforts to help the poor learn the skills to lift themselves out of poverty.