The Hill
Bernie Becker
09/16/2013
The federal government does little in the way of oversight for tax breaks that generally offer the biggest savings to the wealthy, a new paper argues.
In its new report, the National Priorities Project notes that the amount of tax preferences on the books is just a shade under discretionary spending for the current fiscal year – $1.13 trillion to $1.15 trillion.
Tax incentives, the paper says, are also “no different from any other kind of government spending.” Many tax breaks also remain law without Congress having to reassess them.
“There is minimal oversight to ensure tax breaks actually achieve their intended purpose, even as they can grow in size from year to year as more taxpayers claim them for tax savings,” the group’s paper adds.
The group also argues that the federal government spends almost as much money on tax breaks for education as they do Pell grant, even though low-income households receive a smaller share of the tax incentives.
