By: Vanessa Jean-Louis
It’s that time of the year that puts most taxpaying folk into an anxious frenzy: income tax return season. Many might still be waiting nervously or patiently at the mailbox (or closely watching bank accounts if you went direct deposit) for signs of that return from our benevolent, all-seeing, all-knowing government.
That annual ritual is also fraught with the typical political debate over the role of our onerous and sloppy tax system. Conservative Republicans are typically accused of using our tax system to punish the poor while rewarding the rich; conversely, liberal Democrats are purported to fight day and night, through blizzard-filled winters and torrid summers to ensure the protection of the poor.
Meanwhile, back on planet Earth, a historical glance at the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), as well as the Child Tax Credit (CTC) – two heralded initiatives greatly benefiting the working poor and struggling middle class – paints a very different portrait of the GOP.
It’s a needed refresher in tax law that could very well make sense of the non-sensical back-and-forth that obscures any real solution to our tax problem.
The EITC, which was signed into law by Republican President Gerald Ford, was an idea based on the Negative Income Tax (NIT) proposed by conservative economist Milton Friedman. Friedman argued that a multiplicity of government programs such as welfare, daycare/housing subsidies, and food stamps created many layers of unnecessary bureaucracy, encouraged dependency, and government waste. His ultimate argument: the most efficacious way to help ‘the poor’ using public dollars was to give out a single cash payment in the form of a negative income tax.
Continue reading – http://theloop21.com/politics/getting-tax-refund-thank-republican
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