If it's a good tax credit, incentivising something society wants to incentivise, then everyone it applies to should get it; that helps social cohesion. If you make billionaires ineligible for tax credits they'll oppose them (and why shouldn't they?)
>then everyone it applies to should get it; that helps social cohesion
You know what else helps social cohesion?
One person NOT being able to effectively rig the economic and political landscape because they were outsized beneficiaries of it.
You know what also helps social cohesion?
Someone who realizes that they've got more than enough money, and realizes that they don't have a life-or-death need for more, and is happy to pay their taxes.
>(and why shouldn't they?)
Because they've literally got billions of dollars, and the tax credit system was not designed with extreme outliers in mind. "Oh jeeze, I'm just a billionaire, woe is me, I'm not eligible for a $2k tax refund, the world will end".
> You know what also helps social cohesion?
> Someone who realizes that they've got more than enough money, and realizes that they don't have a life-or-death need for more, and is happy to pay their taxes.
Sure. And the best way to make that happen is to make a tax system that feels fair to everyone.
> Because they've literally got billions of dollars, and the tax credit system was not designed with extreme outliers in mind. "Oh jeeze, I'm just a billionaire, woe is me, I'm not eligible for a $2k tax refund, the world will end".
Why shouldn't they be eligible? If we think giving $2k to those who have children is in the public interest (and I do!), it's still in the public interest when it's a billionaire.
I’m all for universal benefits and doing away with means testing but doing so without fixing our regressive tax system it truly is just a gift to the wealthy.