RONALD REAGAN THE "SOCIALIST REDISTRIBUTOR"?

With thanks to a commenter yesterday (Hugh), I researched the history of something called The Earned Income Tax Credit. With all the talk recently about Barack Obama being a "socialist" for wanting to give tax cuts to those who pay no income tax, some have started to realize that we've been doing this for years - and it wasn't even started by those "liberal Democrats".

The Earned Income Tax Credit (or EITC) was enacted in 1975, under Republican President Gerald Ford - however is was greatly expanded by the much-lauded Republican Ronald Reagan in 1986. As Hugh noted, Reagan praised the increase in the EITC as:

"It's the best anti-poverty, the best pro-family, the best job creation measure to come out of Congress."

So how can McCain continue to trumpet his part in the "Reagan Revolution", while railing against the same types of poverty fighting measures that his hero strengthened? Now THAT'S a tough question that needs an answer.

So while David Gergen might have the origins of the EITC wrong, it's nice to see that at least one cable news outlet is mentioning this fact: