A payday bonus: the Earned Income Tax Credit helps "make work pay" for millions of hard-pressed families. Despite some blemishes that need fixing, on the whole it's a real success.(Economic Bridges)

RUSSELL LONG WAS HARDLY THE DARLING OF LIBERAL TAX REFORMERS WHEN he chaired the Senate Finance Committee in the 1970s. In fact, we usually saw him as a toady for corporate special interests. But as the genial Louisiana Democrat liked to say, even a blind hog finds an acorn once in awhile.

The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), first adopted at Long's instigation in 1975, was the late senator's acorn. And like an acorn, the EITC has become a mighty oak. Today, it is the federal government's largest cash-assistance program for low- and moderate-income families with children. It ...

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