entitlement programs

     Here is an article I just published in The Fiscal Times, prompted in part by Leonard Burman's work,  on the staggering size and automatic growth of "tax expenditures" -- tax breaks, for us non-budget mavens.

     Everybody knows that tax breaks -- on everthing from mortgage interest to green-energy projects -- permeate American life and often amount to backdoor government spending.  Republicans love to promote tax cuts, because they seem to strike a blow against Big Government.    Democrats love them because many tax breaks are a way to fund favored social programs.