Perry calls for flat tax to replace income tax

Republican presidential candidate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry delivers a keynote address during the Western Republican Leadership Conference, Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2011, in Las Vegas.

/ Isaac Brekken

Texas Gov. Rick Perry is calling for replacing the federal income tax with a flat tax, a conservative idea condemned by liberals as a regressive burden on lower- and middle-income taxpayers.

The Republican presidential hopeful previewed his economic plan for the country at the Western Republican Leadership Conference in Las Vegas, but offered few details.

He said he would unveil a proposal next week calling for creation of a flat tax, which would replace the present system of graduated tax rates based on income with a single rate for all taxpayers regardless of income.

Perry told an audience of about 150 Republicans that his plan would also include a ban on congressional earmarks, passage of a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, spending cuts and entitlement reform. He plans to unveil details in a speech Tuesday in South Carolina.

"A change election requires a new direction, and not more of the same," Perry said. "And I come by my conservatism very authentically, not by convenience. I offer the American people a new direction. My economic plan is rooted in what has worked in my home state."

He said he would scrap "the current 3 million words of the American tax code" and replace it with "something simple: a flat tax."

"I want to make the tax code so simple that even (Treasury Secretary) Timothy Geithner can file his taxes on time," Perry said.

One of Perry's main rivals for the Republican nomination, pizza executive Herman Cain, has also called for a flat income tax, which he has said would be a rate of 9 percent. Perry did not stipulate a rate in his speech on Wednesday.

Perry said he will also work to pass a balanced budget amendment, another long-standing conservative idea that has lacked sufficient support to pass in Congress. "I will barnstorm this country from Day One, going to all 50 states if that's required, to generate the support for a balanced budget amendment, that will demand (that) the necessary changes will be placed in our Constitution," he said.

Earmarks, the special provisions for certain districts and states tucked into appropriations bills, have been greatly reduced in recent years after they became the object of public scorn as wasteful spending. Perry said, "My plan is to end earmarks for good. It's time to bring some tough medicine to Washington."

[ACRScout]

As a certified "poor person" living on $16,000 per year, I don't mind a flat tax, even if it is a higher rate than I pay now. And they can implement it as soon as they stop all the BS bickering and.... CREATE A JOB FOR ME TO BE TAXED ON.

[ge556]

This insistence on raising taxes on the poor is hateful, and wrong, and certainly not what Jesus would do.
Also, if you raise taxes on poor people, then you are raising taxes on poor students like my son, so you are effectively raising taxes on middle class families like ours.

[sgbarnes1]

Yes. Don't you think everyone should pay his/her fair share?

[ge556]

Yes, I believe in paying one's fair share. Unfortunately, conservatives want the rich to pay less, and the poor to pay more. The rich already pay much lower rates than they did under Reagan.

[Lindag10]

Wonder who's going to attack Perry on this one. Watching these clowns go at it reminds me of that TV show "Robot Wars" where the nerd types built robots and put them in an arena where they fought each other and the "house robots". The last one standing won. Some of the robots self-destructed, others worked intermittentally, others did pretty well and eventually one of them survived to be the "winnter".

[steeepe]

Perry dramatically demonstrates that there is no shortage of fools in the tea party GOP.

[starving1968-3]

by antiglobal5 October 20, 2011 12:39 PM EDT
where do you get that they are skimming about 35%?

They may be middlemen but as I understand it when a person needs medical care that costs for example 500k but has only paid the insurance company 300k over their lifetime, the so called middleman has to pony up the additional 200k they never collected from the insured. Am I missing something?







When that happens, the insurance company claims that it was a "pre-existing condition", and refuses to pay the claim at all.

The victim, er um, I mean insured then has to hire a team of lawyers, and play it out in court over the course of 5 - 10 years or more.

The insurance company waits it out, hoping that the patient dies before a verdict is rendered, and the patient dies - penniless - after exhausting their life savings on lawyers and paying for the health care out of their own pockets.

[daffy64]

Just make the tax rate 25% for everyone. That way, the poor won't have any food money and will die. Then there won't be any poor any more and the rich people won't have to support them.

But then again, who's going to clean the toilets?

Hmmm. Let me re-think this...

[ffrecster]

Consumption tax not income tax. Fair Tax vs. Flat Tax. Abolish the IRS and everyone pays as they go, businesses and individuals. No loopholes, no exemptions, no exceptions. The productivity and money WASTED on bookkeepers, accountants and tax lawyers can go back into real economic development. Sellers collect the tax and pay to the state, the states enforce the collection and pay to the Fed less their cut - just like state sales tax is collected now. It is in the best interest of the states to ensure the taxes are collected. It can shrink the federal government drastically.

[starving1968-3]

by chevyhotrod October 20, 2011 10:37 AM EDT
And everyone of these GOP presidential candidates agree that they needs to be NO MORE BAILOUTS and are all now saying that TARP was a bad idea to begin with.







I haven't heard any of them make those claims, but ALL of them have most definitely said that they would repeal the Dodd-Frank legislation that would prevent our economy from being destroyed by Wall Street and the biggest banks again!!

They don't care about America - they care about ideology ONLY!!

[arthanyel]

starving: I normally agree with you, but I hate to tell you that Dodd-Frank wouldn't do anything of the sort. It does propose many new regulations, but it does not address any of the primary reasons for the meltdown or contain any measures to prevent a reoccurance. It does contain a number of quesitonable areas of regulaiton that will likely only serve to make banks less profitable, with no actual benefit to consumers.

So it might be better than nothing, but it is nowhere near enough and contains a lot of bad legislation. Of course Republicans are blocking ANY increased regulation so it's not going to be implemented.

What we really need is to scrap Dodd-Frank and create a new financial regulaiton package that is better constructed, addresses the right issues, and gets implemented - including the re-implementation of the Glass-Stegall Act.

[starving1968-3]

by chevyhotrod October 20, 2011 10:39 AM EDT
The Federal Reserve has much more power than you think.

Several of the large banks did not want any money/bailouts, they were forced by the FED to except it.

The proof is now in that the Feds forced banks to take the bailout money - even healthy banks which did not need the money.

http://www.city-data.com/forum/politics-other-controversies/649215-proof-feds-forced-healthy-banks-take.html

If they were in such bad shape, why did most banks pay back the money within the first year?







You've posted a link to a "forum".

Probably to your own post, no less.

[Forty-Four]

Flat tax? People who have no jobs can't pay taxes because they have no income as it is. Now they will likely be arrested for not being able to pay because they have no job.

[Forty-Four]

Funny part is I am not from the south. Farthest south I have been in Sandusky, Ohio