Dems Propose EITC

Haven’t had much time to digest this much, but Democrat Mark Foley (House ) has introduced an Earned Income Tax Credit bill that is indexed to the Federal Earned Income Tax Credit. The bill is H.B. 17.

This could be a canny strategy for Dems on several levels:

• EITC has been popular with anti-poverty activists and the public as it aids the working poor.
• The historic love for the EITC among free-market oriented Republicans has dropped away, primarily because they don't want to pay for it. As Republicans argue for more free market in education, it's useful to remind people what happens to market oriented alternative once the government-based program goes away.
• It's a populist tax cut alternative to the state version of the Estate Tax cut (or the Paris Hilton tax break) Republicans have proposed.
• It could potentially be used to justify rolling back some of the high-bracket tax cuts. OK, probably not, but I can dream.

If you haven't noticed, this is part of the general beginning-of-term flood of proposed legislation. Bill Sloat pointed out the online list of bills proposed so far. Today's CD has a graphic with the currently highest profile bills. The next couple of weeks should give some indication as to how all this will shake out.