It is time to start a tally of how many times Congress spends revenues raised from closing the tax gap.

It’s an annual tradition. Each year, Congress picks out its favorite revenue raiser and then uses that revenue over and over again to pay for new spending or tax relief. Past contenders include overturning the Schmidt Baking decision, codification of the IRS’s economic substance test, SILOs, LILOs, COLI, etc. For 2007, the tax gap is the leading contender, and it’s already being used up.

As CongressDaily reported last week, the budget includes more than twenty “reserve funds” that allow for additional spending …

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