I took three Federal tax law courses in law school, the entire offering. Nine semester hours; straight A's. I inform you (not advise you) that every word of the AFSCME explanation of how taxation works is 100% accurate. Government spending is cut when we eliminate ridiculous tax expenditures, like the oil depletion allowance for fabulously rich and powerful oil companies and others corporate welfare entitlements too numerous to list.
The YouTube video by AFSCME of which I speak is currently on the Front Page, so I will put it out in the tall grass for now. The only point of this post is to notify whom I can of an extraordinarily simple and effective debunking of all right wing thinking and messaging about taxes and repeal of loopholes and tax expenditures.
If Republicans really wanted to cut spending that goes to the undeserving, they would start with tax expenditures to industries and economic sectors. The benefit of those expenditures goes increasingly and in huge amounts to enterprises and individuals who least need or deserve the direct financial support from federal entitlements written into the Tax Code. Instead, Republicans argue that cutting such tax entitlements is the same as raising taxes, when it actually amounts to cutting spending, supposedly the sine qua non of Republican ideals.
Democrats need to pay attention to AFSCME on this. Our side needs to campaign that cutting these corporate welfare programs is a spending cut, not a tax increase. Democrats need to embrace this line of thinking. As usual, the facts have a liberal bias.