The earned income tax credit provides important benefits to low-income families with children. At substantial costs (over $70 billion to the US federal government), it increases the incomes of such families while encouraging parents to work more by subsidizing their incomes. But low-income...

Boosting paychecks in America -- The political origins of federal taxes on individual income -- The political origins of the federal minimum wage -- Reagan, Bush, and a new era in the politics of boosting paychecks -- Clinton and the fight over tax relief for the working poor or the middle class...