Tax expenditures-targeted tax breaks-are a staple of life in Washington, never more so than in rotten economic times. While President Obama has announced a committee to figure out how to reduce the deficit, his $3.8 trillion budget proposal for 2011 includes $320 billion (over ten years) in new, renewed or expanded tax expenditures to help the middle class and businesses-more than enough to swamp the projected $250 billion over ten years that Obama proposes saving with a three-year freeze in nonmilitary discretionary spending.
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