William Bradley: “the amendment that I have sent to the desk makes a very simple point. We can spend money just as easily through the Tax…”

“the amendment that I have sent to the desk makes a very simple point. We can spend money just as easily through the Tax Code as we can through the appropriations process or through the creation of mandatory spending programs. I think we should be honest about the hundreds of billions of dollars that we spend each year through tax expenditures. Spending is spending, whether it comes in the form of a Government check or in the form of a special exception from the tax rates that apply to everyone else. Tax expenditures or tax loopholes allow some taxpayers to lower their taxes and leave the rest of us paying higher taxes than we otherwise would pay. The resolution, therefore, simply says that it is the sense of the Senate that we should include specific reduction targets for tax expenditures as a part of the budget reconciliation process. We should put tax expenditures under the same budgetary scrutiny as we do other spending programs. Mr. President, tax spending does not, as some would say, simply allow people to keep more of what they earned. Rather, it gives them a special exception from the rules that oblige everyone to share in the responsibility of the national defense and protecting the young, the aged, and the infirmed.”