“It rewards work. And here’s the thing, it lifts more children out of poverty than any other social program.”
Wait a second, what?!
The Earned Income Tax Credit holds up the floor for modest-income working families by issuing a cash return on income that parents earn. But many more families are eligible than file for it. This season, New Jersey could be the first state to decrease this tax credit.
Nixon imagined it, Clinton enlarged it, twice, and Obama recently bolstered it again. In this RadioWorks podcast, an American Public Media economics correspondent clarifies the Earned Income Tax Credit, reminding listeners that one half of all American families with children receive it. If more families knew about it, and knew how to go about filing for it, many more children would see this money.
Last week New Jersey Governor Christopher Christie revealed a revised budget that drastically cuts that state’s Earned Income Tax Credit to help reach state budget needs, a decision that has immediately met much criticism in Congress and in the press.
