That's a policy proposal that's been around a long time: it's sometimes been called a negative income tax.

BBC: Should we forget about growth?

In fact, they were the brainchild of iconic conservative economist Milton Friedman, who proposed a similar idea (called a negative income tax) 60 years ago.

FORBES: A Modest Proposal: Five Ways To Tax The 47 Percent

While Americans were arguing about Reaganomics in the 1980s, Swedish households were enjoying a negative tax rate on capital income, once generous deductions and adjustments for inflation were taken into account.

ECONOMIST: Economics focus

Using the data from 1913 through the end of 2011, the correlation between the maximum marginal income tax bracket and total Federal receipts is a negative 0.50.

FORBES: Do Tax Cuts Increase Government Revenue?

At the same time, consumer debt levels skyrocketed and the savings rate actually turned negative (U.S. households consumed more than their after-tax income).

FORBES: Will America Keep Saving?

In addition, money losing businesses with negative incomes now reporting on individual tax returns were counted after 1986 among the bottom income earners as a result, which would further exaggerate supposed inequality.

FORBES: The Equality Of Reaganomics, And Fallacious Leftist Dissent

The effect on GDP would be negative, just as it would for proposed expansions of the income-capped refundable Earned Income Tax Credit, and the refundable part of the child credit.

WSJ: Opinion: Corporate Tax Cuts Needed