Athenae, Economy, Stupid Republican Tricks

People Ain’t Got No MONEY: Shove Your Tax Credit, Ryan

Obamacare, let’s make it worse:

So people who already can’t afford to pay their premiums will now … get a tax credit on their nonexistent money they don’t have enough of. I cannot. Nope. Look, things like tax credits are nice, if you already have money, because it gives you money back.

Eventually.

After a while.

A long while.

It gives you a long-term benefit. Long. Term. As in, down the road. A ways.

What it does NOT do is put milk on your kid’s goddamn cereal tomorrow morning. What it does NOT do is help anyone already under water on their bills right now. What it does NOT do is solve any of the problems that need solving for people not helped enough by Obamacare.

(This is, of course, by design and not a surprise so don’t come at me in the comments all IT’S A RICH PEOPLE TAX CUT because of course. What I’m saying is that even on its FACE this is a dumbass argument to make.)

The people already not helped enough by Obamacare do not make enough money for a tax credit to mean shit. They don’t make enough money for their taxes to be a worry. Their worries are along the lines of eating, keeping the lights on, and what to do if one of their tires blows. The idea they can worry about April’s problems in March is laughable. They’re still on January’s problems. Last January’s.

This is the same dumbass argument we’re having about childcare, where you can get a tax credit to pay for your childcare which is awesome if you … have money, to put aside, tax-free, for your childcare! If you do not have that money, getting a pass on getting taxed isn’t really a benefit.

I know I am meant to sympathize, always, with the put-upon Taxpayer of America, who will screw himself out of pretty much any government program so long as his bill to the guv’mint goes down by 20 bucks, but there are quite a lot of people who don’t even earn enough to pull that self-defeating bullshit. My sympathies are with them.

A.

4 thoughts on “People Ain’t Got No MONEY: Shove Your Tax Credit, Ryan”

  1. In case a real-world application would help explain this: I have a good full-time job. I have benefits and save retirement money and Flexible Savings Account money via payroll deduction. I was able to postpone dental surgery until I had the money. BUT it took two years worth of FSA savings AND my total tax refund to pay that bill. I won’t have another dental surgery anytime soon although it is recommended.

  2. more ways to make sure the ‘UNDESERVING POOR’ do not get something for FREE. its the ‘christian thing’. BOOTSTRAPS!

  4. I was thinking since the Republicans toss around deductions like they are real money, Democrats should propose replacing the standard deduction with an equivalent universal basic income that is literally real money in a simplified tax code. Then everybody would just get $525/month and pay taxes on all of what you earned instead of the $6300 deduction.

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