It could replace about 160 pages of instructions, worksheets, tables, and forms with a single page. Benefits would increase for the parents of 24 million children left behind in the President's plan. The way the credit works is pretty simple. If you are a worker, self-employed, or a proprietor, your earnings are supplemented at 50 cents on the dollar, up to a maximum that varies with the number of children in the family. And so on.
More children mean more benefits.
This is only right, since the cost of raising children increases, the more of them you have. Some deep secrets like this are not common knowledge in Washington. There are even some benefits for higher income families, since the current phase-outs of the Child Tax Credit and dependent exemption are eliminated. Like I said, we should be about general tax relief and improving the tax code for all, not just channeling tax cuts to our favorite groups. Critics of the Bush proposal need something sizable but affordable, progressive but not narrowly targeted, and simpler rather than more complex.