On yesterday’s Fox & Friends, as a banner on the screen read, “Who’s Ruining the Economy?” Stuart Varney blasted the Earned Income Tax Credit. As Gretchen Carlson explained it, “The IRS improperly gave $13.6 billion in low income tax credits to families that didn’t need them.” But instead of going off on the IRS and the Obama administration, Varney took a detour into attacking low earners.

Varney said, “The Earned Income tax credit is not complicated, it is corrupt… We hand out $79 billion every January to these so-called poor people who get a direct check from the taxpayer. …Because you’ve got a lot of people who are not reporting off-the-books income but still getting the check.”

Carlson, who noted that the improper tax credits were not the fault of the people who genuinely need them, challenged Varney: “You’re not being mean to poor people today.”

Varney said, proudly, "I am. I am being mean to poor people. Frankly, I am. ...Because this is a direct transfer payment from this group of people who pay taxes... to this group of people who have never paid a dime in their lives but they get a check from the government."

Later Varney said, “Why put the IRS in charge of policing Obamacare? Why do that?”

“That’s what we want to get to!” Brian Kilmeade said. In other words, the point of the segment was to pick on the Obama administration, not the poor this time.

Unfortunately for the anti-Obama meme, the time was up before they could discuss it much. Steve Doocy said, “We need to get this man a hot tea, he’s absolutely fuming right now. …Stuart Varney, all riled up.”

As Media Matters pointed out – but you’ll probably never hear Fox News saying it - the earned income tax credit (EITC) program helped reduce poverty. In 2011, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the EITC “lifted an estimated 500,000 people out of poverty and reduced the severity of poverty for 10 million poor people.” It improves infant health and child academic performance, making it more likely they will attend college and earn more as adults.

Video below via Media Matters: