1.   If the government were to stop granting tax breaks for charitable contributions, donations to churches, museums and other non-profit organizations would shrink dramatically.

2.   Others opposed a clause that raised the pension contributions of federal workers, or simply argued that granting tax breaks would make it harder to reduce the federal deficit.

3.   The protest came while the Israeli government considered granting new tax breaks to about one-third of the Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

4.   To spur bank restructuring, the government is also considering granting tax benefits to financial institutions that take over assets and liabilities from troubled banks.