The Absurdity of Conservatives' "Free Stuff" Talking Point

[Triana]

The Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush got caught sounding like a Mitt Romney rerun recently: He told a mostly white audience that he could attract black voters because his campaign "isn't one of division and get in line and we'll take care of you with free stuff." The remark comes just three years after Mr. Romney was lampooned for later describing his own message in a speech to the N.A.A.C.P. as one where the listeners shouldn't expect "free stuff."

In each context, it was clear what kind of government stuff they meant, given the voters they were talking about. They meant welfare programs -- cash benefits from Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, food stamps, housing subsidies and other direct spending programs that help the poor -- that are, often unfairly, associated with black Americans.

But the shorthand of "free stuff" also takes an incredibly narrow, and therefore misleading, view of government benefits. There's a whole treasure trove of government handouts that aren't dispensed through spending, but rather through the tax code. That doesn't make them any less "free" than a rent voucher or an Electronic Benefit Transfer card.

The government loses about $900 billion in revenue every year on just the 10 largest tax expenditures -- called expenditures because while they aren't direct outlays, they come at a cost just like direct spending. It's a pot that includes credits like the earned-income tax credit and Child Tax Credit as well as deductions and exclusions that help mainly middle-class people reduce how much they owe each April. It also includes special tax rates such as the lower burden on money made through investments instead of a salary. Tax credits mainly help the poor, but the rest help the well off: According to the Congressional Budget Office, more than half of the benefits of these expenditures go to the richest 20 percent of American households.

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THE REST:

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2015/10/08/new-york-times-op-ed-highlights-absurdity-of-co/206042

[arcane1]

1. Conservatives loved the hell out of W's school "voucher" plans.

It's not free stuff when they get it.

[elleng]

2. and their dishonest 'frames' work on their sycophants.

[Anansi1171]

3. Its a blood libel against blacks, significant as its far from the truth

The USDA for example has a history almost entirely one of systemic exclusion against AAs. The cops and their buddies running the impound lots, those awarded government and private contracts. Year after year, generation after generation America does as it intends and excludes blacks nearly wholesale from the avenues of wealth creation and inheritance that exists for whites.

Amazing, yes, that when it comes to spending Conservatives see only social benefits and entitlements, and little else to remark upon.