That’s a really bad grade. Even Gingrich gets a better grade, pulling a C+. “That liberal Rino” Hunstman got a B+ from the group. Perry and Cain both had B-level grades as well.
Their comparison chart was useful. Turns out Santorum does want to reduce ALL corporate tax rates, to 17.5% (Gingrich proposed 12.5%)
Santorum proposes 0% for manufacturing, and Gingrich 12.5%.
Other than that, Santorum’s plan is more of an incremental change which is more likely to be implemented than some of the radical changes. But Gingrich does have an optional component, something I liked in Perry’s plan.
I don’t have a problem with treating manufacturing different, although I would prefer 0% corporate taxes for everybody. If Manufacturing has 0%, that’s better than 12.5%.
And having said that, I now apologize for forgetting that this isn’t a place to discuss policy.
Thanks for the analysis, CWCT, and lol on the post afterword. This IS a place to discuss policy, and is far more helpful to this nomination process, IMO.
I found the page on their site where they explain their grades for all the candidates’ plans:
http://taxfoundation.org/publications/show/27849.html
Some of their complaints about Newt was him keeping the charitable deduction. I happen to disagree with them there strongly. Any method for diverting money to charities instead of the government is a good thing. They also complain that it’s unclear when Newt’s transitions take place such as from social security payroll tax to private accounts. That’s a pretty thin criticism. At least Newt is planning to do it, I’m not too worried at this point the exact date it’s going to happen as long as it does happen.