GOP Bill Creates Tax Break for Americans Making Six Figures, Ignores Expiring Low-Income Credits
from Mother Jones:
On Friday, the House will vote on a Republican bill that ignores an expiring tax credit for millions of low-income families, while handing one to better-off Americans.
The bill, introduced by Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-Ks.), changes the way the federal child tax credit works by raising the eligibility cap for married couples. At the same time, the legislation would allow a 2009 child tax credit increase for low-income families to expire at the end of 2017. Here's how that would play out in the coming years. A married couple with two children that bring in $160,000 a year would get a new annual tax cut of $2,200, according to an analysis by the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP). A single mother with two kids who makes $14,500 a year would lose $1,725 annually.
"The big winners would be the more-affluent families who would become newly eligible for the [child tax credit]," tax experts at the CBPP noted Tuesday. "The losers would be millions of low-income families who are doing exactly what policymakers often say they want these people to do—working, even at low-wage jobs."
Here's a look at how poor, middle-class, and wealthier Americans would be affected by the bill, via the CBPP:
The 2009 law that increased the child tax credit for poor families did so by lowering the income level required for a partial credit to $3,000 and reducing the annual income required for a full credit to $16,333. If it expires, 6 million children and roughly 400,000 veterans and military families would lose all or part of their child tax credit.
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Nice try, though.
I don't really mind seeing this thing go through for that income bracket. It's not exorbitantly high for a family of 4. In NYC an income such as that would be the low end of middle class. A high income here where I live, but whateves...
However, before everyone jumps all over me, the caveat (and point) here being that I find this R plan egregiously disingenuous. They try to play the role of 'the tax cut party', but that obviously isn't true if they are taking away some of the EITC (which I believe this is- they are just using a different acronym) of lower income folks in order to give a better credit to those who are doing ok. Why, and wtf?!? 
As mentioned, I personally don't mind seeing folks at that income level get a bit of a break, but don't freakin pay for it by stealing from the poor. The EITC for the working poor is the only good thing Reagan ever signed into law. It was very helpful for me as a single mom working my butt off in a low paying job when my daughter was growing up.
Let the low income folks keep what extra they gained with this tax credit during the (still ongoing) recession years -AND- perhaps expand it even more to include other struggling income brackets in between that higher one proposed by the pukes. If they feel it must be paid for in some way, take the money from the military budget or something... Or just consider it as a type of (still very much needed) stimulus expenditure...
Sorry to go on and on here, but this really pisses me off.
If the bill gets anywhere, I hope the Dems amend the heck out of it to do as I suggested. And if they can't manage to do that, then they better just kill the damn thing.
