The Coming Right-Wing Clash over the "Half That Pay No Taxes"
In recent years, few Republican talking points have been regurgitated as often as the myth that almost half of Americans pay no taxes. Just last week, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor complained "we have to question whether that's fair," insisting "you've got to discuss that issue."
And that could be a real problem for some on the right. After all, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush respectively expanded the bipartisan Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit which has helped reduce or eliminate the income tax bill for many low income working families. (It was President Reagan who called the EITC "the best anti-poverty, the best pro-family, the best job creation measure to come out of Congress."
And now, some leaders on the religious right are fretting that the GOP's draconian Romney-Ryan budget plan will do away with the vital protections for the "least of these."
The first warning shot at Republicans came from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which warned Congress that "a just framework for future budgets cannot rely on disproportionate cuts in essential services to poor persons" and protesting that "the House-passed budget resolution fails to meet these moral criteria." After Jesuit Father Thomas J. Reese of Georgetown University lamented that "I am afraid that Chairman Ryan's budget reflects the values of his favorite philosopher Ayn Rand rather than the gospel of Jesus Christ," Paul Ryan laughably responded, "I reject her philosophy."
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As this New York Times chart of "Who Gains Most from Tax Breaks" shows, those two tax credits are among the few helping lower income Americans:
More at: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/04/26/1086672/-The-Coming-Right-Wing-Clash-over-the-Half-That-Pay-No-Taxes-
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Admittedly, this argument never made sense to me. 