"Making Work Pay" Tax Credit Making People Pay Money They Didn't Expect

The largely unnoticed and innefective "tax credit" which the Obama administration refunded to many Americans will have to be paid back by most, though we largely knew this already. What I didn't know was the name of the program. It was called the "Making Work Pay" tax credit. Did work not pay before? Is it only through the benevolance of our governing bodies that work pays? Oh thank you, generous masters, for not taking the product of my labor. Or I should say, thank you for loaning it to me.