Is he talking about the same Jerry Ford that I remember? The one who signed into law the Earned Income Tax Credit? The massive income redistribution scheme, reverse income tax, that just keeps growing and growing and growing?
Yeah, Ford fiscally conservative? Not that I remember. I do remember those stupid w.i.n. (whip inflation now) buttons.
Although the EITC was signed into law by Ford in 1975, it was substantially increased by Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, and Bush II. Many (Reagan and Milton Friedman among others) have claimed that the EITC lifts people out of poverty and increases work incentives because it is connected to earned income.
I have serious doubts about these claims. The EITC has become another large welfare program with lots of fraud. The other forms of welfare have not been reduced with the expansion of the EITC. Receipt of the EITC does not reduce other forms of welfare. The EITC is now another large entitlement supporting the vote buying schemes of our wonderful politicians.