Do yourself a favor and learn what “tax expenditures” are because that is how the government, after lobbying from special interests groups, give away the store. Here is how the Digest of Educational Statistics describes tax expenditures: “Losses of tax revenue attributable to provisions of the federal income tax laws that allow a special exclusion, exemption, or deduction from gross income or provide a special credit, preferential rate of tax, or a deferral of tax liablility affecting individual or corporate income tax liabilities.”
What does that mean? The government keeps track of how much money is lost to tax breaks in specific instances, some of which are for poor people, but not all.
I am doing some research about these tax expenditures and will be posting some of my findings. You can find out what the tax expenditures were in the 2001 budget here. Download the “analytical perspectives.”