Following up on my post, Jon Stewart on President Obama’s ‘Spending Reductions in the Tax Code’: Leonard Burman (Syracuse University, Maxwell School), Jon Stewart’s Fake News on Tax Expenditures:

I know you say it’s fake news, but when you riff on policy, people take you seriously.  And, with respect, in this case, you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.

For 40 years, tax geeks like me have been trying to explain that there’s a boatload of spending programs masquerading as tax cuts, and they’re multiplying.  Their number increased by almost 60% between 1987 and 2007. The fact that pols can claim credit for “tax cuts” (good) rather than “spending” (bad) has made them irresistible to legislators of both parties. Never mind that the IRS doesn’t have the budget or expertise to effectively administer a couple hundred spending programs (sorry, tax cuts) or that many of them make no sense.  The tax code’s cluttered with this junk.

Finally we get the president of the United States to acknowledge this and you drill him a new one. … It’s spending, Jon.  Often really dumb spending.  And when we’re talking about cutting food stamps, nutrition programs for mothers and infants, and environmental protections to save money, those spending programs in the tax code should be on the table too.

Here is the original Jon Stewart bit:

What? “Spending reductions in the tax code”? The tax code isn’t where we spend, it’s where we collect, and that…. ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I guess what you said is tax “code”, code for raising taxes. You managed to talk about a tax hike as a spending reduction. Can we afford that and the royalty checks you’re going to have to send to George Orwell? That’s the weirdest way of… just say “tax hike”! That’s like saying, “I’m not going on a diet, I’m going to add calories to my excluded food intake!”