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Tuesday, September 18, 2012

What the Hell is Happening in the Wonkosphere ?

See below for my shoch that Ezra Klein made an incorrect claim of fact.  But that's nothing compared to Josh Marshall's howler

 One of the biggest drivers of the fact that 47% of households pay no income tax is Republican public policy. Specifically, the Earned Income Tax Credit or EITC. Now, to be clear, it’s a good policy. I’m not sure whether it’s better than others like just increasing the minimum wage. But we’re much better with it than without it. Again, though, that’s Ronald Reagan’s baby right there. And something Democrats eventually embraced. 

The EITC was introduced in 1975

"The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) grew from $3.9 billion in 1975 (in
1999 dollars), the first year it was part of the tax code"

Warning PDF

WTF !!!!!

I'm upset, because, for me, Josh Marshall is the most trusted name in news.  If he makes mistakes who can I count on ?

2 comments:

captnjlp said...

I could be wrong, but I'm assuming he's referring to the rather significant expansion of EIC resulting from the Reagan Tax Reform Act.

Robert said...

I'd just say that if you are someone's baby, before that someone you don't exist at all. Also the 86 tax reform absolutely was not Reagan's baby either. It was spawned by Jack Kemp and Bill Bradley. There was a draft law which increased the corporate income tax and Reagan didn't know that. He wasn't even following the tax reform discussion let alone leading it.

Marshall's history is totally inaccurate.