Surprise: One Of Obama’s “Spending” Cuts Is Actually A Tax Hike On People With Children
He’s going to cut spending by taking more of our money.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will propose cutting or changing some 120 items in his budget for fiscal 2011 that will help save $20 billion this year, the White House said on Saturday. …
One of the proposals would eliminate the “Advanced Earned Income Tax Credit,” which allows eligible taxpayers with children to get a portion of the a tax credit paid out in their paychecks throughout the year.
The White House said only 514,000 people — 3 percent of those eligible — claimed the credit and the error rate for the program was high, with 80 percent of recipients not complying with one or more of the program’s requirements.
“This ineffective and prone-to-error program should be eliminated,” White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer said in the statement.
First off, let’s take a moment to laugh at Obama’s proposed $20 billion in “spending” cuts in a budget atmosphere where the yearly deficit is running into the trillions.
Second, while I’m not necessarily sure I disagree with this tax credit being eliminated (I’m for simplifying our tax code, not further complicating it with narrow tax breaks), Obama including what amounts to a tax hike for half a million people into a package of “spending” cuts indicates just how unserious this President really is about de-bloating our government.
The government doesn’t need more of our tax dollars. The government needs to spend less.
