Debunking the Myths of So-Called “Tax Expenditures” [Orrin Hatch Tacks Right]

ATR ^ | 2011-07-13 | James Paul

[92nina]

...MYTH: Tax Expenditures are Loopholes
FACT: This is deliberately inaccurate. A loophole is something that Congress did not intend and would generally shut down, at least going forward, once it learned of the loophole. Tax expenditures, by contrast, were generally placed by Congress into the tax code deliberately. For example, the largest tax expenditure is the exclusion for employer-provided health insurance and benefits. The second-largest: the home mortgage interest deduction. Whether you agree with a particular tax expenditure or not, an honest debate requires recognition that tax expenditures were designed by Congress with economic or social goals in mind and are not inadvertent loopholes.”

What do you think about Sen. Hatch’s distinction between “tax expenditures” and government spending? When someone keeps their own money, is that the same thing as getting a welfare check from the government?

Read more: http://www.atr.org/debunking-myths-called-tax-expenditures-a6332#ixzz1S1ITPye8

[92nina]

With Ted Kennedy deceased and a likely challenge to renomination in the GOP underway, is Senator Hatch now a different man?

Take this article and others I found to the fight to the Libs on their own turf; put the Left on the defensive at at Digg and at Reddit and in Stumbleupon and Delicious

[baiamonte]

Don’t beleive anything Hatch says. He’s a liar and a RINO.

[Maceman]

As some wag observed: “Don’t count your Hatch before he chickens.”

[SC_Pete]

Well put. Succinct and accurate! ;)

[Temujinshordes]

I have a revulsion to the semantics. The definition of “Tax Expenditure” depends upon what the definition of IS is. They are playing word games. We taxpayers know the difference. The words “Tax Expenditures” indicates to me that the government considers all of my income as belonging to the government, and I can keep what they allow me to keep. That is pure bull.