That is something every
DemonRat does, confuse spending our money with letting us keep our own money.
It's a definition of spending that is central to the democrat philosophy, similar to how any spending they want to do, but don't, is a cut.
Every dollar of your pay that you get to take home is a dollar that should have gone to taxes. By allowing you to take it home, a democrat regards it as "spent". You reduce "spending in the tax code" by allowing fewer dollars to escape taxation.