Tuesday, June 21, 2011

When Republicans, like Paul Ryan...

...and Tim Pawlenty, talk about raising revenues by closing loopholes, it's fair to ask, which ones. (When pressed on the question, they punt.)

In his blog this morning, Ezra Klein lists the most significant tax loopholes (my emphasis):

According to the Tax Policy Center, the largest tax expenditures, in order, are the breaks for employer-provided health care, pension contributions, mortgage interest, depreciation of capital equipment, state and local tax payments, and charitable contributions. We're not talking ethanol credits here, and we're not even talking about tax breaks for special interests. We're talking about tax preferences for the middle class.

Which of these tax breaks do you think the middle class would be willing to forgo in order to give the rich another tax cut?

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