Veronique de Rugy writes:
Call me weird, but I believe that ideally, people earning the same income should pay the same amount in taxes. I don’t believe that people making the same amount should pay more taxes simply because, in the case of the child tax credit, some of them made different family decisions than did others or faced different life circumstances.
I would never call you weird for having unusual views about government policy, Vero: I have a few of my own. It is, however, true that this ideal has never been held by many people. The most common forms of the flat tax (those proposed by Robert Hall, Alvin Rabushka, and Steve Forbes) have exempted a minimum amount of income from taxation, and that minimum has depended on family size. The tax code has long included a similar provision, even before the introduction of the child tax credit. I take the durability of this feature of the tax code to reflect a widespread judgment that between two households with the same income, one with more children should pay lower taxes in recognition of its different circumstances.
I also think the frame of reference in this comparison is off. The purpose of these family-centered tax provisions is mostly to benefit children — and almost all childless adults already benefited from some such provisions when they were themselves children.