I was having a conversation with a Republican in my office recently. I realized that part of the problem is that we see the problem differently. I'm not for welfare, agreeing with the idea that if you want money, you should work. At Taco Bell, if that is all you are qualified for.
But the main thing I see as the problem is that a good amount of people in this country are in fairly low paying work. And that's ok--we need the full spectrum of people, from garbage collectors to hair dressers to supermarket checkout clerks. If everyone had a Ph.D, well, then, who would cut my hair?
But the problem is, that for those low paying jobs, there is a particularly severe problem with health insurance. If you have a $30,000 a year job (which isn't so bad--I made less than that for the first four years out of college), and you've got a family, and you don't get health insurance with your job, you're looking at market rates of, oh, say, $700 and up per month. And that's assuming that there's no preexisting conditions on the part of anybody in your family. I view this is the problem--not the lazy bums who won't work. But my Republican colleague did not see it that way, her position is, well, it's their choice to be in a low paying profession and why do I need to be penalized for it? Whereas my position is, well, we need all members of society in all manner of professions, and why is it that health care gets doled out on the basis of who has the highest grades (i.e., income)? Fundamentally that's wrong, to me. That is why I'm not a Republican.
As far as a flat tax, it's really regressive. If you count all the taxes we have to pay, property (which you pay as a renter), sales, car licensing, Social Security (which high income earners stop paying often early in the year!) you name it, by the time you get to the Federal income tax, you're looking at a really regressive tax structure which disproportionally hits lower income people. The federal EITC is for WORKING people, it's not some welfare handout.
And I don't think you should just put people on the dole--increasing educational opportunities, and making it easier for second career people to go back to school and earn degrees when their original career track isn't working out or they want to get ahead is important. This contributes to the ability of capitalism to destroy inefficient markets and industries.