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October 20, 2011
Perry's Plan To Be A Flat Tax Proposal and Steve Forbes on Rick Perry’s Flat Tax Plan: ‘I’m elated!’
Steve Forbes on Rick Perry’s Flat Tax Plan: ‘I’m elated!’
As you might have heard, Texas Governor Rick Perry is planning to come out with a flat tax proposal next week. The plan hasn’t even been finalized, but it already has at least one big backer.
“I’m elated by it,” Steve Forbes told me. “And I think Governor Perry will surge ahead of Herman Cain,” he said.
“Herman Cain gets credit of realizing the [current tax] code has to go [but] the virtue of what Governor Perry is doing is that he does not bring in a sales tax,” he said.
In 1996, Forbes popularized the issue in the United States, running for president with a flat income tax as his signature issue.
Forbes stressed that Perry’s plan isn’t complete — that he’s still “tweaking” it. But Forbes indicated Perry’s plan would be similar to the one Forbes proposed in 1996 — which called for no income taxes on families until they hit $36,000 of yearly income. (After earning that amount, they would then pay a flat 17 percent tax on additional income.)
“I think the same principle will be at work with Governor Perry. The rate they are still tweaking, but the concept will be the same,” he said.
Forbes says the exemptions for people making below $36,000 (or whatever the new number is) are important, “so you don’t hit people with low incomes.”
Regarding the flat tax concept, Forbes said it’s an idea whose time has come. “The idea — even though it has been a while coming in the U.S. — has been gaining traction around the world, ranging in size from Albania to Russia,” Forbes said. “So we’re catching up with the rest of the world.”
Forbes also mocked Mitt Romney’s 59-point plan, saying: “I heard one person say, hey, Moses had only 10.”
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“In six days, I’m going to release the details of an economic growth package that will create jobs, create growth, create investor confidence in America again,” Perry said at the Western Republican Leadership Conference Wednesday morning. “Scrapping the three million words of the current tax code, starting over with something simpler — a flat tax. I want to make the tax code so simple that even [Treasury Secretary] Timothy Geithner can file his taxes on time.”
“I am not the candidate of the establishment. You won’t hear a lot of shifting nuance from me,” Perry said. “I’m going to give the American people a huge big old helping of unbridled truth that we can’t continue to spend what we’re spending, that we can’t avoid entitlement reform because we’re afraid of the third rail of politics.”
Perry’s appearance at the debate and speech Wednesday morning marked his first appearance in Nevada this campaign cycle, and he presented a more energetic persona than in previous weeks.
“Let’s get Washington out of the way in order to save and preserve the American way. Let’s do it. Let’s roll,” Perry said as he closed his speech while shaking his hands in the air.
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Wild Thing's comment........
There is such a great feeling to what has been happening especially in the last few days. Things are coming together and I like the way Perry does it step by step making sure each Plan has been well thought out.
Posted by Wild Thing at October 20, 2011 04:55 AM
Comments
For decades I have wished for a flat tax. The US tax code is so complicated and ambiguous that it discourages honest reporting. It is also costly as so many taxpayers have to use a CPA or tax preparer. Billions of hours are wasted trying to figure out each year's forms. Our present tax code also leads to criminal congressional behavior as lobbiests pay off politicians to amend the tax code to favor those lobbiests interests.
We have had presidents and Congressmen promise to simplify our tax code, but it seems to end up even more detailed, lengthy and complicated.
Posted by: TomR, armed in Texas at October 20, 2011 08:33 PM
If Steve Forbes can line up support for the flat tax sure but it is old and ha has tried a lot of times before this. It is an old idea and everyone in Washington knows where to kick it. In point of fact our current tax system is a flat tax with cancer. It started as a single rate on all money over $50,000 (over a million in today's money) We went into WWI and when we came out everyone paid the tax, only criminals sold drinks and women voted. That was a bad four years. But they are all right that the 16th amendment needs to come out. We are also entangled with foreign agreements that it may not be possible to restore American manufacturing.
Posted by: Avitar at October 20, 2011 11:09 PM
Tom, thank you so much for sharing about the Flat Tax and how you feel about, I really appreciate it.
You are so right about our present tax code.
Posted by: Wild Thing at October 21, 2011 12:18 AM
Avitar, thanks for sharing how you feel.
Posted by: Wild Thing at October 21, 2011 12:20 AM
