ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, November 20, 1995                   TAG: 9511210005
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BILL ARCHER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ANTIPOVERTY PROGRAM NEEDS REFORM

IN REFERENCE to your newspaper's support of the earned-income tax credit, I would like to explain how and why House Republicans want to reform the EITC.

Everyone agrees with the EITC's original purpose - to provide poor families an incentive to work instead of depending on welfare. Especially while reforming welfare, Republicans are committed to preserving the EITC so families will want to get off welfare and be rewarded for doing so.

But as welfare has proved, indiscriminately throwing money at problems will not solve them. Repeated expansions in the number of people eligible for the EITC and the value of the credit have made it the fastest-growing federal-entitlement program. In 1975 when the program was created, the maximum amount a family could receive was $400. Today, the maximum amount is $3,110.

Responsible policy-makers can't ignore the fact that the EITC now seems more intent on redistributing income than helping families escape poverty and welfare. For example, families with incomes of more than twice the poverty level are eligible for this supposed antipoverty benefit. Without the changes we have already made and are now proposing, 1.8 million families with incomes of more than $30,000 would have received EITC checks in 1996 alone.

And few Americans are aware that about 4 million able-bodied workers without children to support - almost all working only part-time - now get EITC checks. Does this make sense? Republicans simply reject the notion that 4 million middle-income taxpayers must pay on average $175 more in taxes so the government can send checks to able-bodied, part-time workers who don't even incur the cost of raising children.

The House plan is compassionate by restoring the EITC to its antipoverty roots. It makes sense by targeting benefits to families most in need, and treats fairly those eligible for the credit and those who pay for the credit.

Bill Archer,R-Texas, is chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. 


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