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Comment by djrobstep | Hacker News Reader

No they haven't, and that's not what the article says.

This is a good video response from Matt Bruenig that goes into these stats in detail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWBdFHA8KvU

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This guy Matt Brueig says EITC and child tax credit skip the poor. I think this guy may be a trolling by trying to convince me these things don't help the poor thus they should be repealed.

He also says health care doesn't count as bills so it shouldn't count.

I honestly can't tell if this guy is just so fucking rich he has no clue what's going on, or he's trolling.

Are you familiar with these programs at all? They contain a “phase-in” design that means they deliberately give less (or even nothing at all) the very poorest.

The way he phrased it made it sound like EITC drawers aren't poor, and that's why it doesn't count. If the people earning it are poor, it should count towards figures that are helping the poor. It's also worth noting some programs phase out below the EITC phaseouts, so EITC helps keep these people from falling off a cliff on the income producing side or being punished too harshly for earning more money, while simultaneously providing additional benefits that financially incentivize employment.

I don't agree with Brueig here, but if his claims EITC, Medicaid, and CTC don't help alleviate poverty that's a damn strong argument he's making to eliminate them.

> If the people earning it are poor, it should count towards figures that are helping the poor

Did you read what I wrote at all?

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