We All Get ‘Free Stuff’

Bryce Covert takes issue with Jeb Bush’s comments that Democrats use “free stuff” to win voters and points out that there’s “a whole treasure trove of government handouts that aren’t dispensed through spending, but rather through the tax code.”

“So while low-income Americans are more likely to get health insurance through Medicaid, well-off Americans are the ones who reap the benefit of health insurance tax breaks. Poor families might be able to get Section 8 apartment vouchers or spots in public housing, but the mortgage interest deduction overwhelmingly helps people who make more than $100,000 a year buy their homes.”

“What the government loses to tax expenditures dwarfs spending on welfare programs. Each year, it spends about $17 billion on assistance to needy families and more than $70 billion on food stamps, compared with more than $900 billion that flows out through the tax code. It expends nearly three times as much on tax subsidies for homeowners as it does for rental assistance for the poor.”