How to set default tabs only for cat?

I prefer to set tabs 4 however this may have some side effects, such as [for example ls out put may look not properly aligned](https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/111838/9760) . **How might I configure the terminal / cat to use four spaces for tabs for cat only?** Should I just alias / wrap cat to something that sets tabs 4, runs /bin/cat, then sets it back? My thinking is that this route is less preferable since in fact I would like this behaviour for less, diff, and other utilities.