The Drum Beat Continues: Tax the Poor and Middle Class.

The Norquist no tax pledge doesn't apply to the elimination of tax credits for the middle class and poor. 

It's a tax increase if you do away with the Earned Income Tax Credit. But for some reason, Republicans have reasoned this "Earned" tax credit is welfare, a give-a-way, and therefore on the chopping block.

The Census Bureau has just release new numbers that deal with programs that prevent the poor and middle class from living in poverty:

The U.S. Census Bureau today released new data that provided a more detailed picture of poverty and hardship in the United States. For the first time, the Bureau released 2010 poverty statistics under a new Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM). At the same time, the SPM factors in tax and transfer programs such as SNAP/food stamps, the earned income tax credit, and housing subsidizes in determining those who are poor.

Why tamper with success, especially in these post Great Recessionary times? But the facts and no tax pledge falls to the wayside for Tea Party losers like Michele Bachmann, who seem to relish the economic divide in this country:

Think Progress: Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), who is campaigning for the 2012 GOP presidential nod, has already made it quite clear that she intends to raise taxes on the poorest Americans if elected. Today, she rolled out a new plan to hike taxes on those at the bottom of the income scale: eliminating the Earned Income Tax Credit. 

This would be through the income tax system because the problem is, and this is where I deviate from Reagan, he instituted the Earned Income Tax Credit, it’s known as the EITC, and that effectively took many many Americans out of even having to pay any tax liability at all. I would do away with the EITC and if a person has $3 in income they would be subject to something. Obviously, no one has $3 in income. But they would have to pay something through that system.