It's not a gift to allow someone to keep more of the money they have earned.
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Let's say a stretch of road in front of two houses represents the entire tax burden for those two houses. And let's say that tax burden is $5000. Furthermore, House A has a total income of $50,000 and House B has a total income of $50,000.
Common sense dictates each house would pay $2500 in taxes. That works out to a 5 percent tax rate.
But noooooo...not in 'Merka!
House A is mortgaged, while House B is rented. House A therefore gets a $500 discount from their taxes.
House A also has a couple of kids. Therefore, House A gets another $500 discount from their taxes.
Total tax burden for House A is therefore $1500 instead of their fair share of $2500. This is where you celebrate someone getting to keep more of their money and then promptly stop thinking.
However, House B will now have to cough up $3500 if the budget is to be balanced. That means their tax has to be raised to 7 percent from the original 5 percent.
This is how your deductions are equal to an ObamaPhone or food stamps. They have to be paid for by other taxpayers. In fact, your deductions, exemptions, and credits are far, far greater than the cost of food stamps or ObamaPhones. What's more, the mortgage interest deduction is highly regressive.
House A and House B earn identical incomes, but one is paying $1500 in taxes while the other is paying $3500. This is beyond outrageous.
What's more, House B refuses to pay 7 percent in taxes. All the House B's of America revolt. As a result, the government only charges them 6 percent (still higher than the original 5 percent) and then borrows the rest from the Fed and China and a bunch of other countries.
And that is how we got $17 trillion in debt. Your deductions, credits, and exemptions which add up to $1.2 trillion a year. Seriously. That is not an exaggeration. Tax expenditures add up to $1.2 trillion a year.
Now go and look at what the federal deficit has been each year.