This column is not intended to take sides in that debate but to try to make it a bit more rational and sensible. Admittedly, this is a general answer, and doesn't supply enough information for a specific answer at a point in time. But it does allow one to start from a social or economic perspective rather than jump immediately into the politics of the matter. Politicians, after all, want to be known as creating winners. Winners are those who get an additional expenditure or reduction in tax.
Any expenditure is financed out of someone's taxes.
Any tax cut means that there must be a lower level of expenditures somewhere or, for the same level of revenues, that another's taxes are raised. Sometimes the persons who are forced to bear the increased burdens are members of future generations who do not yet vote. A perfect equation of winnings and losings is required if a balance sheet is to be accurate, but it is possible that a tax or expenditure change is of such value to society that it produces additional gains in the form of growth. In that case, winnings can possibly exceed losings. Often such claims are exaggerated, which makes them harder to evaluate.