RICHARD EPSTEIN: The Tax Expenditures Muddle. “The current impasse over the debt ceiling has been resolved, at least in the short run, by a set of compromises that leaves no one satisfied. At the same time, the long-term imbalance of government expenditures outpacing its revenues remains largely unsolved. . . . Two ways to make government bigger involve borrowing money and imposing progressive taxes. A third notable technique is tax expenditures. Tax expenditures allow the scope of government activities to increase without going through the nasty process of an explicit government appropriation and transfer payment.”