income tax credit

Duane Shank 12-22-2011
 Sen. Jim Demint (L) and Ebenezer Scrooge (R)Photos via Wiki Commons,http://bit.

Sen. Jim Demint (L) and Ebenezer Scrooge (R) Photos via Wiki Commons,http://bit.ly/Collage by Cathleen Falsani for Sojourners.

Sen. Jim DeMint recently released a plan to cut the federal deficit with $4.2 trillion in spending cuts. And guess what he wants to cut? 

Seventy percent of the cuts would come from safety net programs that assist low-income people, including eliminating the earned income-tax credit and child tax credit.

Even an analyst for the American Enterprise Institute objected, saying, "It's comprised completely of spending cuts and no tax increases, but then targets the lower-income programs while sparing the big middle-class programs. They could have designed a spending-cut program that was more balanced …”

The news brought to mind a parable from the mid-1800s.

In the opening scene of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge is approached by two earnest gentlemen. "At this festive season of the year, Mr Scrooge,'' said the gentleman, taking up a pen, ``it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the Poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir.''

Phil Haslanger 6-13-2011
Jesus never said anything about collective bargaining. He never called for the continuation of the Earned Income Tax Credit for low-income workers.
Chuck Collins 12-14-2010

In 2010, the moral measure of tax policy choice is: Does it further concentrate wealth and power in the hands of a few?

Jennifer Kottler 12-09-2010
I have to admit that the estate tax is one of my favorite things to rant about.
Here's a logic lesson for you: Both Beck and Grayson use the argument "If A is a B, and A is also a C, then all Bs are Cs." And they shouldn't use this kind of argument.
Ronald J. Sider 4-17-2009

If a budget is a moral document, what should be said about the president's proposed budget for 2010? I focus here on what this budget proposal says about justice for poorer Americans.

 

Bob Greenstein 4-07-2009

I've been asked for a few words about how the recession may affect poverty in the United States, and also about policy issues related to poverty that have emerged from the economic recovery legislation and from the budget debate on Capitol Hill.