Bush’s marriage-penalty relief deliberately excluded low-income EITC filers.

Evidence

This reform came with a large caveat, however. The new law did not apply to taxpayers eligible for the earned income tax credit (EITC), which applies to low-income wage earners. (A tax credit is different from a deduction because it offsets tax liability rather than lowering taxable income.) Bush only slightly reduced the marriage penalty found in the EITC, which meant that those who needed it the most—hardworking, low-income Americans—got very little tax relief from being married. As a candidate in 2000, Bush had said, “What kind of a tax code is it that discourages marriage?” While in office, he instituted a Healthy Marriage Initiative, promoting marriage as a path to stability for low-income families. Yet from a tax policy perspective, President Bush did very little to change things for low-income workers. — Dorothy A. Brown, The Whiteness of Wealth, 127

Categorization

• QUESTION: The EITC is a named, concrete tax provision for the reader’s list of four — mechanism: its marriage penalty was only slightly reduced while higher earners got full relief.
• DEFINE: Defines the credit-vs-deduction distinction inline, useful for a general audience explanation.