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By Mike Konczal/Rortybomb – This is an example of what Suzanne Mettler calls “the submerged state,” a pattern where the government has, as she says, “shunned the outright disbursing of benefits to individuals and families and favored instead less visible and more indirect incentives and subsidies, from tax breaks to payments for services to private companies. These submerged policies…obscure the role of government and exaggerate that of the market.” Instead of directly providing public options, we subsidize the purchasing of private goods, often using the tax code.
There are winners and losers in each case. When we subsidize through the tax code, people who are well off and pay more taxes benefit more. more> http://is.gd/lZv4Dn
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