We know that our complicated tax code with its jigsaw of special preferences reduces economic efficiency.

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One way restaurants can distinguish themselves is by recognizing returning diners and recalling their special preferences.

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The U.S. economy would benefit from abolishing loopholes and special preferences that induce people to make uneconomic choices.

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And too many poor countries still care more about winning special preferences from rich ones than the benefits of opening their own markets.

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As more of these special preferences have been added to the tax code, more decision-making in our economy is tax-motivated rather than economically efficient.

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Against the headwinds of the slowest recovery since 1960, small business owners are dealing with a tax system that is hopelessly complex, full of provisions that expire every one or two years, riddled with special exemptions, deductions and preferences and filled with new penalties.

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It is choked with exemptions, preferences, credits, subsidies, special-interest favors, phase-ins, phase-outs and grandfather clauses.

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And make no mistake, CBO was looking at the big tax preferences that politicians often dismiss as loopholes or special interest tax breaks.

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