In the news section of this blog we observed (some weeks ago) the IRS sending a couple to jail for claiming and receiving reparations for slavery. The problem is fairly huge, it turns out:

As recently as 2001, the book reports, the IRS received more than 77,000 tax returns claiming a slavery reparation refund or credit. The previous year, there had been only 13,000 such returns.

Does that surprise you? Well, how about the fact that the IRS paid 200 of these claims? For a total of $30 million?

Here are some details.