The statement that made my head explode ever so briefly:

In reality, these tax breaks are closer to spending programs than tax cuts. By giving deductions and exemptions, the government "spends" part of its potential revenue on programs for everything from housing to education to child care. The programs are run through the tax code to make them look like tax cuts. What's more, tax breaks shift the burden from taxpayers who can claim exceptions to those who can't.

This describes every tax cut this Republican-led government has lavished on the already wealthy and the corporations that are already the most profitable in the world. Before they touch a single penny of working people's earned income they need to be recapturing the money they threw at the wealthy.

Anyway... 

Homeowner tax breaks are breaking the budget
By Maya MacGuineas, Maya MacGuineas is the director of the Fiscal Policy Program at the New America Foundation.

PRESIDENT BUSH'S tax reform panel has ventured into political no man's land. It wants to limit the tax deductions for home mortgages, employer-provided health insurance and state and local taxes.

Individuals and businesses love these tax breaks. Democrats and Republicans embrace them for their own ideological reasons. The constituencies backing them are powerful. But these sacred cows are in desperate need of reform. The Treasury needs the money to close the growing budget deficit, and these tax breaks often benefit the wrong constituencies, even hurting the very economic strata they are intended to help.