A Bold New Idea to Boost Wages - by Robert Reich

Found here. My comments in bold.
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So Dr. Reich has a bold new idea. Unfortunately, it is neither bold nor new.
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The challenges are well known: Working Americans are struggling to keep up with the increasing cost of living. Unemployment is low, but wages of most Americans have remained flat. More than three-quarters of Americans are now living paycheck to paycheck. Most can’t afford a $500 emergency. (So after 80 years of leftist prescriptions, the average worker is still struggling? I wonder if Dr. Reich can accurately diagnose the problem?)

There’s a simple and bold solution that would cost about as much as the Trump tax cut. (We can be certain that it will cost much more.)

But instead of helping corporations and the rich, it would help millions of working and middle-class Americans by putting money directly in their pockets. (Tax cuts put the worker's own money back in his pocket. Dr. Reich wants to put other peoples' money in his pocket.)

I’m talking about expanding something called the Earned Income Tax Credit, or EITC. And although it’s been around for decades, it can be the basis of a revolutionary change in the lives of millions of people.

As it now stands, the EITC gives thousands of dollars to the working poor, with the amount of money they receive gradually decreasing as their earnings rise until they reach a cap, which is now a little over $50,000.

It works so well (Waaait. Dr. Reich just explained to us how desperate the condition is for the average worker. But the EITC "works so well?")

because it directly boosts the incomes of people who need it the most. Cash gives people freedom and dignity— the power to decide, for example, whether to have their car repaired or buy new shoes for their kids or save for a rainy day. (A power they currently possess, with the added alternative that one of the possible decisions is to do neither. That is, a person who doesn't have money doesn't spend it. That must be considered in any discussion of "freedom," especially since the one who money is being taken from is experiencing less freedom.)

When working people have money to spend, they spend most of it in the communities they live in. This, in turn, causes businesses to hire more people to meet the demand. It’s a virtuous cycle that lessens poverty, makes the tax code fairer, and boosts the overall economy. (Dr. Reich is strangely silent about the source of this money. What he is saying is that he wants the government to take more money from some people so they can't spend it, and give it to others to spend. 

This will create exactly zero new spending. Every dollar is taken from someone else who would have spent it.)

A bold new idea (Again we note that this idea is neither bold nor new. Dr. Reich himself admitted the EITC has been around for decades.) 

would be to expand this successful program in 4 simple ways:

First: Raise the maximum amount that very poor Americans receive from the Earned Income Tax Credit by several thousand dollars. This would dramatically reduce poverty in all families with someone who works full time. (No, it wouldn't. The poverty level is arbitrary line drawn at approximately the lowest quintile. The lowest quintile remains the lowest quintile no matter how much money they have.)

Right now, a job at a $15 minimum wage plus Medicaid and food stamps still doesn’t meet basic needs in much of America. (That is, three government redistribution programs have failed, so we need more government redistribution.)

Raising the Earned Income Tax Credit would ensure that every family with a full-time worker is out of poverty. (No it wouldn't. Again, Dr. Reich cited three programs designed to lift people out of poverty. Yet they're still poor, because the poverty line is a statistical measure, not a measure of wealth.)

Second: Extend the Earned Income Tax Credit into the middle class, so even families earning the median family income – which was just about $76,000 in 2017 – will benefit. This would be a huge help to working-class families, many of whom are now one paycheck away from poverty. (Not content to give more of other peoples' money to the poor, Dr. Reich wants to extend the failure of government redistribution to the middle class. A household income of $76,000 is deemed inadequate. )

Third: Expand the benefits of the Earned Income Tax Credit to two groups of Americans who are working hard, but not necessarily collecting paychecks: people (most of whom are women) who are caring for a child or for a senior in their family, and low-income students. (that is, the Earned Income Tax Credit would be extended to non-earners. I think Dr. Reich will have to think of a new name for his bold new proposal.)

Fourth: Let people receive this money each month rather than in a lump-sum once a year at tax time, so it helps with monthly expenses – rent, food, education – or can be saved to build a financial cushion. (Nowhere in all of this has Dr. Reich suggested we have a prosperous nation that results from an economy that creates its own wealth.) 

Presto. We create a kind of cost-of-living refund (A refund is a return of money paid out. Giving money to people is not a refund.)

to lift the incomes of a third of Americans, the people who need it most, and we also include the working class and lower middle class.

At the same time, we begin to rewrite the tax code in favor of ordinary Americans, instead of large corporations and the wealthy. (Who wrote this tax code? Government. Who in government wrote this tax code? Mostly Democrats.)

Eighty-three percent of the benefits of the Trump tax cuts will go to the top 1 percent of Americans by 2027. (Because they pay 83% of all income taxes.)

Expanding and modernizing the Earned Income Tax Credit can help put things back in balance. (Actually, it will increase imbalance.)

It’s simple. It’s fair. It’s necessary. It’s big and bold. Enlarge and expand the Earned Income Tax Credit.