Control the money

If the idea is to help low income people the easiest and most effective way is to remove the payroll tax on the first $50,000 of income. This gives each of these people a $4,000 raise. This is not popular with politicians since it does not send the money to Washington so they can redistribute it in the manner they feel is best. They feel they can make better use of these funds. Of course it is also a way to curry favor with voters by offering benefits for votes. If the idea is to improve the environment the easiest and most effective way is to move to natural gas for transportation. Once again this means a direct benefit to the cause of climate change without a transfer of money to Washington so it is not something politicians want to discuss. As long as these problems remain in the realm of politics they can avoid these obvious solutions and keep control of the money.