Tax System Is America’s Biggest Spender

April 17 (Bloomberg) -- If you’re at all like us, chancesare you’ll spend Tuesday evening finishing your taxes. As yousearch for every last deduction and credit, it’s worth asking:Does any of this make sense?

Here’s a way to see through the fog. Instead of looking atall the breaks for mortgage interest, health care, retirementsavings and so on as deductions, picture the government writingyou a check for each item. This equivalence between taxdeductions and government spending leads economists to call them“tax expenditures.” Reformers have hit on an even more pointeddescription: spending through the tax code.