Don?t confuse lower tax rates with ?tax breaks?

A blurb in the latest Newsweek offers the following pronouncement:

Every year, dozens of governors, particularly Republicans, win plaudits for curbing business taxes and state expenditures. The Cato Institute, for instance, recently gave A?s and B?s to those (Rick Perry, Mitch Daniels, Tim Pawlenty) who have supported ?spending cuts and pro-growth tax cuts.? There?s just one problem with this approach: it doesn?t work, according to a new report by the University of Massachusetts. Spending on infrastructure and education, the report shows, is the wiser course since tax breaks do little to create jobs.

Writer McKay Coppins misses the boat here. The argument is plausible only if ?tax break? means a targeted tax incentive, or corporate welfare.

You don?t have to look hard to find evidence in this forum of the counterproductive nature of targeted tax incentives.

But the ?tax breaks? Cato honors are real tax ?cuts,? the lowering of marginal rates for all taxpayers. These tax breaks certainly do create jobs, since they encourage more saving, work, and investment.