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Making Work PayThe Baltimore Sun’s columnist Thomas F. Schaller questions why many conservatives oppose the Making Work Pay" tax credit being proposed by President Obama. Here are a few of the reasons: The Making Work Pay credit does nothing to create jobs, despite Mr. Schaller’s assertion that the money would be “plowed immediately back into the economy”. When conservatives complained that not enough money was being sent to taxpayers as a result of the stimulus bill, liberals responded that money sent directly to taxpayers wouldn’t stimulate the economy. You can’t have it both ways. If it wouldn’t stimulate the economy as part of the stimulus bill, it won’t do it as part of a tax credit scheme. The credit is refundable, so if the amount of the credit is greater than the total that the taxpayer owes in income taxes, they will get a check from the government for the remaining amount of the credit. In other words, many folks who don’t pay income taxes directly to the government will get a credit despite not paying taxes, or will get a check in the mail for money they never owed or payed. Taxes paid by their employer on their behalf should be credited to the employer, not the non-paying individual, if the government has a desire to return the taxes collected. Note that in 2009, the IRS will give an estimated $57.8 billion to taxpayers who pay no income taxes but still get a refund via the Earned Income Tax Credit and/or the Child Tax Credit. I think that’s enough. Lastly, and most importantly, this is not a credit for taxes paid. It’s simply another spending proposal being disguised as a tax credit, and like all of the other spending going on it’s going to be paid for by our children, grandchildren and the yet to be born. Interesting is that the day after Mr. Schaller’s opinion was printed in the Sun, another opinion was printed titled “The perils of living for today”. That article could be used as an explanation as to why it’s wrong to ask future generations to pay for the monstrous spending we’re engaged in today. President Obama and Congress still have an opportunity to redraft this legislation if they truly want to refund taxes to folks who pay taxes, but this is not where their constituency lies and nobody expects this to happen any time soon. In a nutshell, this legislation is all about “free government money” to be paid for by somebody else, which is why liberals embrace it and conservatives oppose it.
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