The issue I have with tax breaks is that they amount to a kind of coercive social microengineering (i.e. enforced at government gunpoint) which first, aren’t the business for a government of a free people to even attempt to do, and second, which are usually to the benefit of elites and cronies, at the expense of the rest of us. Suppose there’s a giant tax break for owning sports teams. Are you or I ever going to own a sports team? No, so such a break is exclusively for the benefit of multimillionaires and billionaires. And they don’t need the help of government, by which I mean, it is not ethical for government to help those people at the expense of people like us.
In principle I don’t disagree with you at all. I would point out, though, that “farther down the food chain” someone who viewed themselves as “never being able to afford a house” might have exactly the same view towards the home mortgage deduction. Or, someone who never thought of themselves as being able to start, run, and operate a simple business might well have scorn for those who can deduct the cost of their (business venue) rent and paper clips. Just sayin’.
At the same time, again in principle, I have some trouble saying that “we are paying for it”. Because the break issued to Mr. Ballmer (and a zillion others) reduces tax revenues, yes, correct. But I see the government as having no inherent claim on that revenue (other than their lawmaking ability), so it’s not “theirs” (in my view) except to the extent they can issue a claim on it.
We (you & I) would probably agree that government is too large, claims far too much tax revenue, and enforces many policies of highish taxation. We would like gov’t to tax (demand) less. Arguably, Ballmer’s buy of the team produces widespread economic benefits all over the place. But it is difficult to have an argument/discussion as to the benefits/detriments of this kind of tax break while imaginging dissolving the system under which and by which it works. Gov’t has to get *some* money to perform its mandated, Constitutional tasks, and to assist in roadbuilding to some degree, defense of course. I am making no kind of silly argument that taxes should be zero.