I oppose *Universal* Basic Income because it is a waste of money, a Negative Income Tax would be so much better.

It's functionally no different than pairing UBI with a higher income tax, and the latter is a lot less administrative hassle.

That might be true if a country had a single pot of money to spend. but that's not the case. UBI works because it's *U*. No stigma, no forms, no claims, no judgement over who is worthy or not, no enforcement, so no politician claiming that they're going to 'go after the cheats'. No stress.

IIRC anyone who earns more than $400 from any source in a year needs to file a tax return anyway, so honestly I wouldn't have a problem with this It's something almost everyone already does, and could easily be folded into current tax code (probably simplifying it by replacing most deductions)

It's not a waste of money for 20% of the people to get UBI that they don't need. It's more than offset by not needing a bureaucracy to do means testing. Plus, they will spend that money just like everyone else and stimulate the economy just like everyone else.

Running all our welfare programs through the tax code is an unnecessary barrier to the people who need them most

Claw it back at tax time, then. Means testing at point of benefits is a waste of money. Tax forms do the paperwork for you.