1.11.2006

Indicative, Disheartening Headline

This headline cuts right to the heart of the very real class warfare that exists today:

"I.R.S Move Said to Hurt the Poor"

For some reason these grafs stand out to me:

About three-quarters of those affected were employed parents who applied for the earned-income tax credit, under which all income and Social Security taxes can be returned and, in some cases, a payment made.

The credit is a kind of negative income tax, first advocated by Milton Friedman, the Nobel-winning economist, and championed by President Ronald Reagan as the government's best program to encourage the poor to improve their circumstances through work.



Perhaps it is due to the way it highlights how this presidency and much of the Republican leadership has abandoned many of the principles they have espoused of the years when they were arguing that they were the party of principle. Perhaps it is because it exposes the hypocrisy of right-wing complaints about how talking about class and wealth discrepancies is "engaging in class warfare." I don't know. It's possible that this is an example of good intentions leading to negative unintended consequences, but I'm doubtful this is a result of purely innocent conditions.

Kevin Drum has some interesting commentary on it over at the Washington Monthly

- Glitter

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