Fix Tax Laws to Help the Poor
May 18th, 2007After six years of Bush administration tax cuts for the wealthiest one percent of our country, the new Congress is trying to turn things around.
Democratic leaders in Congress want to help low-income people by improving the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax Credit. These credits provide badly needed assistance, but currently they do not reach millions of the poorest children, and provide far too little to low-income, childless workers.
Click this link to send a letter to Congress in support of improving these tax laws: http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/eitc_and_ctc
This year, working families with incomes below $11,750 will be excluded from the refundable Child Tax Credit and 10 million children in working families will receive zero help simply because they are too poor. In addition, childless workers with earnings averaging about $6,050 get a very small EITC — only $230 on average.
Efforts to fix flaws in our tax system so it can benefit rather than penalize the working poor, must be a top priority. By increasing the amount and the number of people eligible for these tax credits, we can help lift up millions of America’s working poor who have received little benefit from recent tax cuts or the nation’s economic growth.
The poor don’t have a lot of power. If we’re silent, others with more money and power may shrink or eliminate improvements to these tax credits. But if hundreds - let’s hope thousands - of us send letters, the needs of the poor will move up high on the priority list, where they belong.