
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 31, 1993                   TAG: 9303310074
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

2.1 MILLION POOR BENEFIT IN TAX PLAN

President Clinton's plan to expand a special tax benefit for the working poor will lift more than 2.1 million people out of poverty, the administration said Tuesday.

That benefit, known as the earned-income tax credit, would be extended for the first time to poor childless workers age 22 and older, saving them up to $306 a year in taxes.

"Can we talk of family values when two-parent working families go unprotected from poverty and medical uncertainty?" asked Wendell Primus, a deputy assistant secretary of health and human services. He was testifying before the House Ways and Means revenue and human resources subcommittees.

"Can we say we believe in work when we fail to reward those people who try to choose work over welfare?" asked Primus, formerly chief economist for the Ways and Means Committee.

The credit has been a major weapon in the war on poverty since it was enacted in 1975 to give families with children incentives to work rather than rely on welfare. It is claimed by more than 13 million families.

Under present law, a family with two or more children and adjusted gross income up to $23,760 can benefit; the tax saving can go as high as $2,717, although it drops off as income rises above $12,580.

Clinton's proposal would offer some credit to two-child families with incomes as high as $28,000, and the maximum tax saving would rise to $3,371. The maximum would be available until incomes exceeds $11,000, said Samuel Sessions, deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury.

by CNB