XPost: or.politics, ca.politics, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh

<http://WSJ.COM>
By Richard Rubin
Dec. 23, 2023 5:30 am ET

WASHINGTON - Stephanie Murphy needed an idea. Fast.

It was early 2020, and the Democratic congresswoman saw the coronavirus pandemic posing a catastrophic economic threat to her Orlando, Fla.-area district. By mid-March, the Disney and Universal resorts closed. Murphy
and her staff hunted for ways to help workers and businesses and prevent
mass unemployment in the tourism industry. They latched onto a policy implemented in disaster zones after 2005's Hurricane Katrina.

The result: The employee-retention tax credit, or ERC, a new nationwide incentive for businesses and nonprofits to keep workers on payrolls.

The credit, designed as a temporary $55 billion lifeline for struggling employers, has cost the government about four times that much—and
counting. It is a big reason why federal revenue missed projections in
2023. Expanded by Congress and publicized by a pop-up industry of advisers
that helped employers claim the credit, the ERC spurred a wave of fraud
that the Internal Revenue Service still struggles to control.

The ERC, examined nearly four years after its creation, is a classic case
of good intentions and unintended consequences. Congress used the tax
system to provide quick aid during a crisis—and the tax system opened the
door to enormous problems.
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Anyone that isn't confused doesn't really
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