........"This country over the past several decades has increasingly become plagued by cronyism. Whether it be Wall Street bankers or public employees unions or casket sellers in Louisiana, everyone wants to try to convert influence with the government into taxpayer money for themselves. We have to end this. And a good place to start is with the tax code. Every special deduction and tax credit in the tax code is a giveaway to some special interest. At best it is a misguided attempt, like the money we wasted in Solyndra, of politicians to try to pick winners and losers, to say that one kind of spending is somehow better than another. At worst, these deductions are a crony giveaway. Sure, it's eliminating these deductions will help reduce the deficit. But even more importantly, eliminating them would be an opening shot in the war to take cronyism and corporatism out of Washington."
