"Give Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) credit. In a city where obfuscation and misdirection are the coin of the realm, the conservative Republican lets you know exactly where he stands. While most of his party remains mired in its “job-killing tax increase” rhetoric, Coburn has no misgivings about eliminating tax subsidies and using the money to reduce the deficit. His new budget plan, “Back in the Black” would scale back these deductions and credits by $1 trillion over a decade.
And in doing so, Coburn didn’t mince words:
“Tax expenditures are not tax cuts. Tax expenditures are socialism and corporate welfare. Tax expenditure are increases on anyone who does not receive the benefit or can’t hire a lobbyist…to manipulate the code to their favor.”
Unlike most pols of both parties, who blast tax expenditures in general but refuse to name names, Coburn has a list. In fact, he has 60 pages of details on the tax subsidies he’d deep-six. He targets two of the most controversial: the tax exclusion for employer-sponsored health insurance and the mortgage interest deduction. And he takes aim at a wide range of tax breaks for economic development and energy production.
Coburn’s plan for $9 trillion in spending cuts and tax increases isn’t going anywhere. It is much too ambitious for almost anyone else in Washington and the spending cuts are far too deep. Slashing spending by $8 trillion over a decade would result in draconian reductions in government programs, including important strands of the social safety net for those who need help the most"..............READ MORE
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