Beatles or Stones?
The editorial Sen. Pat Toomey (R., Pa.) makes a fine case for the need to reduce entitlement spending, in addition to raising federal revenue ("How to tackle entitlements and avoid the cliff," Sunday). Too bad he takes such a narrow view of entitlements.
The entitlement elephant in the room is the mountain of federal spending on corporate and investor welfare, including tax breaks. They are entitlements even if we also have other names for them. Why, for example, do we lavish huge federal subsidies on oil companies that are rolling in money? Or hugely profitable food giants? What are these, if not entitlements? And what is it about "carried interest" and "capital gains" that protect Wall Street and the investor class from paying at least the tax rates the middle class has to pay? Why is that kind of income favored by tax subsidies, but not the paychecks of regular working people?
