Tax breaks to middle class families outstrip those to special interests

Rick Moran

This is a fascinating article in the Washington Post about where most of the tax breaks in America goes; middle class families.

Broad tax breaks granted to millions of families at all income levels dwarf the corporate giveaways. Over the past two years, largely because of these popular benefits in the federal income tax code, the government has reached a rare milestone in tax collection - it has given away as much as it takes in.

The number of tax breaks has nearly doubled since the last major tax overhaul 25 years ago, with lawmakers adding new benefits for children, college tuition,retirement savings and investment. At the same time, some long-standing breaks have exploded in value, such as the deduction for mortgage interest and the tax-free treatment of health-insurance premiums paid by employers.

All told, federal taxpayers last year received $1.08 trillion in credits, deductions and other perks while paying $1.09 trillion in income taxes, according to government estimates.

Only about 8 percent of those benefits went to corporations. (The write-off for corporate jets equals about .03 percent of the total.) The bulk went to private households, primarily upper middle-class families that Obama has vowed to protect from new taxes.

You can't go to war with families, so Obama and the Democrats are doing the next best thing; trashing "millionares" who may or may not benefit more from the tax code than the middle class.

Pitting one class against the other is just about all Obama has as a reelection strategy given his dismal record. It certainly has nothing to do with debt reduction, nor, as the Post article shows, "fairness."