here's how martin feltsteen described the benefit of reducing tax expenditures. expenditures in an op-ed in the "wall street journal." and i quote from martin feldstein. cutting tax expenditures is really the best way to reduce government spending. let me just repeat that. reducing tax expenditures, or cutting them, is really the best way to reduce government spending. eliminating tax expenditures does not increase marginal tax rates or reduce the reward for saving, investment, or risk-taking. it would also increase overall economic efficiency by removing incentives that distort private spending decisions and eliminating or consolidating the large number of overlapping tax-based subsidies and also greatly simplify tax filing. in short, cutting tax expenditures is not at all like other ways of raising revenue. we also know that we need more revenue. some of my republican colleagues have argued that revenue should not exceed 18% of gdp. the average over the last several decades. but on the five occasions when the budget was in surplus since 1969, revenues have range