I have to disagree with you on a couple of those. I think Huntsman has one of the better plans, in that he actually advocates scrapping all of the credits and exemptions and going with a flatter, broader tax base. It is still progressive in that it has three brackets, but stripping away all of the deductions and credits - which increase compliance and return preparation costs and allow politicians pick winners and losers - is actually more important to me than having one tax bracket.
I think Santorum’s tax plan is abysmal for a conservative. It looks more like a Blue Dog Democrat’s proposal than a Republican’s - and as you might know, I’m not one who throws around “RINO” accusations very often. The elmination of corporate income taxes for anyone engaged in “manufacturing” would be a disaster - can you imagine the type of shenanigans that will go on, both in Congress and among tax-paying companies, to play with that exemption? It’s a shame, too, because I like a lot of Rick’s policies and I like him a lot personally.
For what it’s worth, I think Santorum truly believes this is what’s best for the country. Coming from anyone else, I’d think it was shameless populist pandering and an attempt to get crossover votes from Reagan Democrats. Santorum is one of the most honest guys in politics, however.
That's a good point. As much as I like the idea of encouraging US-based manufacturing, this would be so abused. Wait till someone claims they "manufacture" part of the World Wide Web.