[Craig Axford]
President Obama is proposing to significantly expand the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). This program arose out of conservative economist Milton Friedman’s idea of a negative income tax (form of BIG) and has traditionally enjoyed bipartisan support.
Bloomberg View, “The Working Poor Get Their 15 Minutes”, Bloomberg View, March 4, 2014.
This is a welfare tax that benefits producers and encourages them to pay low wages. It is also targeted to the working poor. A minimum wage is better for the taxpayer. A producer/consumer liquidity insurance fiscal policy indexed to an economic indicator like GDP would be preferable, namely BI.