[lbo-talk] Obama on poverty: straight DLC

[John Thornton]

Jordan Hayes wrote:
> Doug writes:
>
>   
>> [EITC] is better than nothing, but it'd be nice if wages were
>> higher ...
>>     
>
>   
> I'd prefer for it to be handled by payroll companies rather than by 
> 1040EZ filers, but there you have it.  I think the bottom line (and I 
> think this is Max's original point) is that we should be 'for' anything 
> that lowers the tax burden of the poor, right?  It's not either/or: you 
> can still be in favor of additional reforms.
>
> So getting back to the original question: are you part of the people who 
> are against EITC because it's an employer subsidy, or are you against 
> EITC for other reasons?
>
> /jordan

I original point of the posting was that Obama's position on poverty 
issues; EITC, TANF, and "responsible fatherhood legislation", were no 
different than Clinton's rather than who is or isn't in favor of the 
EITC and why.
In the articles own words:

"The point is not that Obama is worse than Clinton on poverty --  .......
The point is that  Obama's record on poverty does not bear out the hype 
that he 
personifies change."

The bit about Doug's preference concerning higher wages rather than EITC 
was just personal commentary IIRC.
As to whether EITC can be correctly called an employer subsidy, while 
interesting and probably worth debating, is also not related to the 
original question as to why people insist Obama is the candidate of change.

I support the EITC and believe it is an employer subsidy so I'm not 
certain why Max wrote:

"The only people who don't support the EITC are a few misguided lefts who
insist without a scintilla of evidence that it's an employer subsidy."

This suggests leftists who believe EITC is an employer subsidy don't 
support it for specifically for that reason.
It also misdirects the argument away from the point the author of the 
article Doug cited makes; namely that Obama's position on poverty 
issues, as defined by the author of the article, is the same as Clinton's.

John Thornton