Perry proposes 20 percent flat tax

Republican Presidential Candidate Rick Perry, center left, walks to a truck Saturday Oct. 22, 2011, before a hunting trip near Merrill, Iowa.

/ AP Photo

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry unveiled a sweeping economic agenda Monday highlighted by a plan to level a voluntary 20 percent "flat tax" on all taxpayers who will accept it in place of what they're paying now.

The plan, outlined in a Wall Street Journal op-ed column a day before the Texas governor was set to unveil it in South Carolina, also calls for capping federal spending at 18 percent of the country's GDP while allowing younger earners to privatize their Social Security accounts. Taxpayers who don't want to pay a 20 percent flat income tax, he said, can keep their current rate.

Perry offers several proposals that appear designed to sweeten the offer - and to counter criticism that the flat tax is regressive, taking a proportionally bigger bite from smaller incomes. His plan would preserve popular deductions for mortgage interest and donations to charity for households earning less than $500,000 a year. It would increase the standard deduction to $12,500.

Calling his agenda "Cut, Balance and Grow" - a clear nod to congressional Republicans, who have proposed a "Cut, Cap and Balance" budget bill - Perry says his proposal is the best way to cure the nation's ailing economy.

"Cut, Balance and Grow strikes a major blow against the Washington-knows-best mindset," Perry said. "It takes money from spendthrift bureaucrats and returns it to families. It puts fewer job-killing regulations on employers and more restrictions on politicians. It gives more freedom to Americans to control their own destiny. And just as importantly, the Cut, Balance and Grow plan paves the way for the job creation, balanced budgets and fiscal responsibility we need to get America working again."

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[Andrew_Duncanson]

Another failed idea by Rick Perry. He is lost.

[vikinginc]

This is blind blunder. You want to start to fix the debt? Do you want to see what is important to Americans? Here is an idea I have proposed to both senators and my congressman with no results. If a person has $539 tax return coming you can designate an amount back to the government to the department of your choice. This money would not be extra, just money that would not have to be borrowed. This gives the politicians and the American public as a whole a feel of where our priorities are. The biggest drawback I have heard is we americans don't trust politicians to do what we say. This is putting our money where our mouth or heart is. I would split years between the VA and Dept of Defense.

[watkinsjr2000]

This proposal is idiotic.It's nothing more than a political gimmick. Even Rick Perry knows it has no chance of becoming law. But,if it did it would amount to a gigantic gift for the mega-wealthy while ripping off the middle class (it would greatly increase the federal debt). I think Beavis & Butthead could come up with a better tax plan than this one.

[amos333]

The Government's loss is the people's gain - go Perry!

[NadePaulKuciGravMcKi]

Ricky . Willard . Herman
three corporate puppets

Do NOT Believe A Word
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaGNAL_u-SU

[wdrussell1]

So Perry is going to set us free.

As KRIS KRISTOFFERSON wrote,
Freedom's just another word for nothing left to loose.

[amos333]

draft-dodger sentiment

[A_Canadian_Opinion]

Perry's postcard prop is nothing but spin. If filing your income taxes ever becomes that simple, then the goal of having fairness in taxation is lost. I noticed he said in his speech that the flat tax would be "20% of your income." Does he not realize that the thousands of pages of IRS code and publications have to do with the definition and calculation of "income" as opposed to the tax rates that are levied on that income? I'm pretty sure he does, but notice that he never said anything about how income will be calculated under his plan. Do we really think he's going to make the tax system so simple that you just calculate income however you feel like? Pull a number out of the air, and write it on the postcard? What a pile! Don't fall for it. Vote for anyone else who shows some level of common sense. Don't get me wrong, the tax code needs to be simplified, but that has nothing to do with flat tax vs. progressive tax.

[MTATL67]

Why would I believe a Governor who's own state is $27B plus in debt & borrowing money from federal government to fix the country when he can not even balance the budget in his own state.

[noloyalisti]

Perry is yet another bad, clueless, reactionary Republicon who hates the American people.

Flat tax is the most regressive tax and makes the current situation in America that the less you make the more you have to pay as a percentage.

The more you make the more you should have to pay percentage wise because you use all the common resources that we all pay for more. That is why we have a progressive tax scheme that should be made even more progressive.

[WeHappyFew]

Voluntary. IE only those currently eligible to pay over that would touch it. Keeping the biggest loophole, 'charitable deductions,' open.
Just wow.

So that's a Bush tax cut, super-sized.