Since I’ve knocked Max Baucus repeatedly on the corporate tax credits he passed through his committee in August, which ended up in the fiscal cliff bill. So here’s a statement from Baucus’s Finance Committee staff:

There’s no question more needs to be done to weed out wasteful tax cuts.  The Finance Committee will take a hard look at each and every expiring provision as part of comprehensive tax reform. As Chairman Baucus stated in a speech last year, “We need to get out of the way of the market, unless there is clear evidence that a tax expenditure spurs growth and creates jobs. Every tax provision needs to prove it has a tangible benefit to our economy or society. If not, it doesn’t belong in the tax code.

Sign Up for the Timothy P. Carney newsletter!

Please enter your email address below to begin receiving the Timothy P. Carney newsletter.

You must enter a valid email address in the field above!

Thank you for signing up for the Timothy P. Carney newsletter! You should receive your first newsletter very soon.

We're sorry, there was an error processing your newsletter signup. Please click here to visit our Newsletter Signup Center to register for this newsletter.

This backs up some of what I’ve already heard: some of this year’s extenders may be killed in 2013 as part of a broader reform. We hear this sort of thing a lot, but here’s the Finance Committee Chairman putting his name on the idea.