Fine. If it'll make you happy, let's say the bully steals lunch money from EVERY kid in the fourth grade except his friends. He doesn't give them any money; he just doesn't take it from them.
So, are you really going to say the bully is subsidizing his friends' lunches because he takes everyone else's lunch money?
I am not going to debate analogies.
But I am far from the only one that considers tax breaks a subsidy.
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLG,GGLG:2005-49,GGLG:en&q=ethanol+tax+subsidies