dajafi wrote:I've never heard an argument "against" the EITC. It's probably the most popular and least controversial anti-poverty initiative this country has ever developed and implemented. St. Reagan Himself called it “the best anti-poverty, the best pro-family, the best job creation measure to come out of Congress.”
The cliche is that "liberals like it because it makes work pay, conservatives like it because it rewards work." Maybe I'm a weird liberal because I believe there's a legitimate case for paternalism in public policy--expecting recipients of public assistance to work if they're able strikes me as a fairly conventional facet of the social contract--but both justifications sit well with me.
EITC is also perhaps one of the most abused individual tax provisions. When I was in law school, I worked in the tax clinic and over half my clients were poor folks who got audited because they claimed a random non-related child for their EITC.
