Tax expenditure analysis is founded on the view that some provisions in the tax code are "really" spending. But what if the conventional distinction between "taxes" and "spending" is incoherent to begin with? AEI visiting scholar Daniel Shaviro will argue that this case is correct, but that tax expenditure analysis is nonetheless valuable because it helps correct the common illusion that tax cuts, even the highly targeted benefits that tax expenditure analysis can help identify, always make the government smaller. Shaviro argues, however, that tax expenditure analysis has historically been compromised by its improper use as a weapon to argue for income over consumption taxation and for greater progressivity. Andrew B. Lyon, former deputy assistant secretary for tax policy at the U.S. Treasury Department, and Terence Chorvat of George Mason University Law School will comment.