Free Republic

The evolving by the hour IRS scandal, in which the tax agency targeted conservative groups for examination and harassment, as detailed by the Washington Post, cries out for not only an investigation, but legislation. To be sure an investigation and the punishment of those responsible for politically motivated examinations and audits must happen. But the fact that the IRS did these things at all stems from the fact that someone wanted to target conservative organizations and perhaps people and, thanks to the existence of the IRS, they could. This therefore argues for an overhaul of the tax code that would...

Free enterprise, free markets, competition, and choice: All are timeless economic principles, but their application can and should evolve with changing economic circumstances. When Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1980, the top income-tax rate was 70 percent, inflation was 13 percent, health-care spending was 10 percent of GDP, and publicly held debt was 26 percent. The average American was 30 years old.Today, the top marginal tax rate is 40 percent, and inflation is 2 percent. Health-care spending and the debt have both risen by nearly 80 percent as a share of output. The average American is 37 years...

In an earlier era, Dr. Benjamin Carson's speech before the National Prayer Breakfast last week would have been a really big deal rather than mere fodder for a brief squall on Twitter and cable news. Born in crushing poverty to an illiterate single mother dedicated to seeing her children succeed, Carson became the head of the department of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins medical institutions when he was 33. He's been a black celebrity role model ever since. Even if you didn't like the substance of what Carson had to say at the breakfast, his speech made for great political...

The French actor, described by Mr Putin as a successful businessman and friend, has developed close ties with Russia, which has a flat 13% personal income tax rate. He currently appears in an advertisement for Sovietsky Bank's credit card and is prominently featured on the bank's home page. In 2011, he played the lead role in the film Rasputin, a Franco-Russian production about the life of eccentric monk Grigory Rasputin. In addition, Mr Depardieu has also helped raise funds for a children's hospital in St Petersburg.

The tax on luxury will become reality for all Russians without exception next year. President Vladimir Putin reminded everyone of that in his annual Address to the Federal Assembly. According to experts, the new tax may send a definite message to wealthy citizens to redistribute their revenues. The head of state said in his speech that the decision on the so-called luxury tax should be made in the first half of 2013. According to the official website of the President of the Russian Federation, one should not give up on the "flat" income tax scale, since the progressive taxation of...

Most mainstream media outlets aide in the proliferation of myths about our tax system and our economy. Here are 5 myths about the US tax system that you probably thought were true. 1. Once A Millionaire, Always A Millionaire As you can see by the graph below, this shows how many consecutive years millionaires file their taxes as millionaires. Half of the people who become millionaires are only at that status for one year.​ 2. Tax Credits Only Help The Rich This graph shows the effective tax rates since 1980. As you can see, because of tax credits and deductions,...

Barack Obama doesn't think the rich are paying their fair share of income taxes. So what is their fair share? I posed this question to Fox News commentator Juan Williams in Dallas the other day. "The top 10 percent of income earners are paying 71 percent of all income taxes," I said. "Isn't that enough?" Although Juan was trying to defend the Obama position, he didn't have an answer. Then I turned the question around. "The bottom one-half of the population is paying zero, or close to zero, income taxes. What's their fair share?" He didn't have an answer to...

I’ve done thorough blog posts highlighting the economic benefits of the flat tax, but I find that most people are passionate about tax reform because they view the current system as being unfair and corrupt. They also don’t like the IRS, in part because it has so much arbitrary power to ruin lives.But it’s not just that is has the power to ruin lives. That can be said about the FBI, the DEA, the BATF, and all sorts of other enforcement agencies.What irks people about the IRS is that it has so much power combined with the fact that the...

Republicans have promised to finally overhaul America’s tax code next year. Reform is long overdue. Now it’s a matter of what direction lawmakers should take.While some of the GOP’s pragmatists have already balked at being bold, now is exactly the time to take that message to the American people. They’re looking for solutions, not excuses. And there’s one plan that stands out: the New Flat Tax. It features one rate, two credits, three deductions. It’s that simple.The plan is part of The Heritage Foundation’s comprehensive solution for fixing America’s debt problem and restoring prosperity. As a Heritage employee, I’m naturally...

Six years ago, I decided to leave Rancho Santa Fe, California, for Nashville, Tennessee. That’s a major undertaking for anyone, but particularly for a 25-year resident of Southern California, dragging his whole family and company along with him. I still remember decision day: January 5, 2006. I’d been disappointed in November by the defeat of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s ballot initiatives, which aimed at reining in state spending, but I was utterly aghast as I read the transcript of the governor’s State of the State speech just days into the new year. Clearly, he had resolved to move in a big-government...

California need not drown in debt and economic failure. So says Arthur Laffer, the happy advocate of a flat tax for California to solve the Golden State’s ills. We are inclined to favor a flat tax, as we’ve intimated and bellowed from time to time. And Laffer’s new book, Eureka! How to Fix California, is a blueprint for replacing the existing state and local taxes with a single, 5.8-percent flat income tax on personal unadjusted gross income. . .

Herman Cain appeared on Fox News Wednesday night to make what was billed as a "very big announcement" on Sean Hannity's show. Very big it was not. The former Republican hopeful and pizza chain CEO did not endorse a current GOP candidate, as some had predicted he might. Nor did he announce he was getting back into the 2012 race, as Hannity teased he could. Instead, Cain announced the launch--or continuation--of his 999 economic plan with another catchy tagline: "Cain's Solutions Revolution." "The biggest comment when I ended my candidacy was, 'Keep 999 alive,'" Cain said. "And that's what this...

Herman Cain tells National Review Online that he will launch a new political-action committee in January. The outfit, whose final name remains under wraps, will be Cain’s main project next year. Its mission will be to enact his “9-9-9” economic plan. “We continue the campaign without a candidate,” says Cain, who hinted at the endeavor during his departure speech. “There are a lot of people who are willing to support the campaign for solutions without the end objective being my election as president of the United States.” As Cain transitions to private life, “Friends of Herman Cain,” the financial force...

The Club for Growth wrote a white paper on Governor Romney back in 2007. Most of the information below is from that repory, but since Romney has been outspoken on several issues then, weve updated his record to reflect those positions. ...During his initial 2002 campaign Romney refused to sign an anti-tax pledge, but he pledged to balance the budget without raising taxes and touted his fulfillment of that pledge throughout his term. But the details suggest that he broke his verbal committment. Romney did not impose any broad-based tax hikes he imposed a slew of fee hikes. He opposed...

Results from Democratic firm Public Policy Polling poll of likely GOP caucus goers: Newt Gingrich (22 percent), Ron Paul (21 percent), Mitt Romney (16 percent), Michele Bachmann (11 percent), Rick Perry (9 percent), Rick Santorum (8 percent), Jon Huntsman (5 percent), and Gary Johnson (1 percent). The poll’s margin of error is 4.2 percentage points. Down in the weeds, PPP notices a couple of factors that might be contributing to these numbers: He’s [Gingrich] also seen a significant decline in his favorability numbers. Last week he was at +31 (62/31) and he’s now dropped 19 points to +12 (52/40). The...

Whether you’ve been watching every debate or are waiting until the field narrows, the 2012 presidential election push has gotten underway. So what will the impact be on your business? No denying, the economy will be a hot topic this go-around. And tax reform remains an integral part of any strategy to right the ship. One specific target? Corporate taxes. With good reason: The United States is well above-average in its corporate tax rates. While the international average falls around 20%, we blow that away. But maybe not for long. The candidates vying for the Republican presidential nomination plan to...

The problem is that we conservative economic thinkers have gotten ourselves into a bungle by playing on the liberals' playing field. We have accepted that government goods are to be valued for each of us individually as a function of our income. Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/11/flat_tax_philosophy.html#ixzz1eGOEp4K0

You don’t have to be Aristotle, who began around 330 BC to popularize the theory that the earth was spherical instead of flat, to discover that tax plans, including (perhaps especially) Rick Perry’s plan, that are called “flat tax” plans are anything but flat. No matter how you hold them up to the light, assuming you actually attempt to hold them to the light, they cannot be made to appear flat. You can call them flat, and you can also call Al Gore a historically prominent purveyor of peace, but that doesn’t make it so. Let’s go through some steps...

Done right, a flat tax can make the U.S. more competitive and help working people. So let's stop making it so partisan. Here's the bottom line on the hottest issue in the presidential campaign: A flat tax, done right, is a good idea. Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan is definitely not a good idea. Rick Perry's plan is better but murky. We'll be hearing much more about such plans, and since some kind of tax reform is vital to America's future, it's worth taking two steps back from the campaign sound bites to see what's really on the table. Today's thinking...

he Perry campaign wants to reboot, having retooled and refined its message and tried hard to get back on the jobs message. Okay, fine, but first the Perry camp needs to answer a basic question — why should supporters who went all in for him and wound up feeling burned give him a second shot? I asked him about that and it was, perhaps, a good sign that he stayed on the jobs message. The jobs message, though, raises a question about his flat tax — won't it just help the rich? Also, what about President Obama's approach and his...

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain visits Washington today to attend events at the American Enterprise Institute and National Press Club. Mr. Cain has been polling at or near the top of the 2012 GOP presidential field over the last few weeks. Earlier at AEI, he took part in a conversation on his 9-9-9 tax plan with one of the think tank's tax scholars, Kevin Hassett. The plan would replace the current tax system with a 9 percent business tax, a 9 percent personal income tax and a 9 percent national sales tax. Following Cain's appearance, AEI held a plan discussion...

The intensity of the ongoing Republican presidential debates has a very uplifting silver lining. Specifically, the competition ensures a much needed discussion of the proper mode of federal taxation. Texas Governor Rick Perry seeks somewhat of a flat tax, and the positive implications of such a move would be quite something. Not only would this reduce the price of work for most Americans, but it would make tax preparation a snap such that a lot of fecund minds whose employment is a function of byzantine tax laws would be released into more productive lines of work; the U.S. economy a...

With Rick Perry’s call for a 20% Flat Tax, the movement for fundamental, pro-growth tax reform became unstoppable. Perry, Herman Cain, and Mitt Romney are now the only viable candidates for the Republican presidential nomination remaining. With both Cain and Perry now offering dramatic pro-growth tax reform proposals, Romney will either jump on the tax reform bandwagon or be left in the dust (or possibly both). The only pro-growth tax cuts in Romney’s 59-point economic plan are a reduction in the corporate income tax rate to 25% (from 35% today) and the elimination of the death tax. However, both Perry...

What treat on Halloween! GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain is coming to the American Enterprise Institute on October 31st for a 9 AM chat with AEI tax guru Kevin Hassett. (I just might sneak in a few questions, too!) As you know, Cain’s 9-9-9 tax plan has incited energized discussion about the impact of taxes on Americans. The plan would throw out our current tax system and replace it with a 9 percent business tax, a 9 percent personal income tax, and a 9 percent national sales tax. Many economists believe that this move would promote growth, but detractors argue...

Plunging into the heated debate over taxes among Republican presidential contenders, former US Senate candidate Mitt Romney today is running a series of full-page newspaper ads attacking the 17 percent flat tax proposed by candidate Steve Forbes. "The problem with the Forbes flat tax is that it isn't flat at all -- it's a zero tax on the wealthy and a 17 percent tax on working Americans," Romney said yesterday. "I'm hoping that by running these ads voters will realize the Forbes flat tax is a gimmick, a phony, and not what it pretends to be." The ads note that...

First of all, let me congratulate Rick Perry, and Republicans in general, for focusing on the idea of less spending and lower taxes. This is the complete opposite of the kind of “austerity” approach that fiscal conservatives often stumble into during times of budget distress. snip The first reaction of government insiders and their corporate cronies is never to cut themselves off, but rather to reduce important services. Thus, we get the same waste and theft as before, fewer services, and higher taxes. snip Less spending should be focused on cutting waste and graft, and preserving, as much as possible,...

Perry and Cain, both contenders in the race to be the next Republican candidate for president, are proposing massive overhauls of the current progressive income-tax system to one based on a flat tax, though Perry’s proposal allows an out for taxpayers who want to stick with the current system. Based on the broad outlines offered Tuesday, Perry’s plan “is likely to be a tax cut for nearly everybody,” said Howard Gleckman, a resident fellow at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center in Washington. snip As for middle-income people, under Perry’s proposal they could continue to claim deductions for mortgage interest, charitable...

At a private fundraiser in Corpus Christi, Texas hosted by the Nueces County Republican Women, Cain told the group how his ’9-9-9′ plan measured up against Texas Governor Rick Perry’s recent ‘Cut, Balance, and Grow’ plan. Cain said, “Bottom line, Governor Perry’s flat tax lite is no competition for 9-9-9.” “Every interview that I do now till the end of the week, they’re going to want to compare it to the 999 plan,” said Cain, who elaborated on the many differences between his plan and Perry’s plan.

Our tax system is a source of mystery and headache for many, filled with confusing benefits and detriments, depending on whether the payer did what his political masters wanted him to do. Even more disturbing is that most revenues have been hidden behind the sticker prices and omitted from our pay stubs. Revenues were hidden by politicians for two reasons: to make it impossible for the payer to determine if he received value for his dollar, and so that funds could be easily misappropriated on things the payer never used or could ever use. Herman Cain suggests that you visit...

Governor Rick Perry of Texas has announced a plan, which he outlines in the Wall Street Journal, to replace the corrupt and inefficient internal revenue code with a flat tax. Let’s review his proposal, using the principles of good tax policy as a benchmark.

Seeking to jump start his flagging presidential campaign and establish his pro-growth and fiscal responsibility credentials, Governor Rick Perry is unveiling a tax plan that will not jump start the economy and is fiscally irresponsible. In a nutshell, Mr. Perry would give taxpayers a choice between filing under the current income tax system—with all its flaws—and an alternative flat tax 20 percent system. Under the latter, families could maintain their mortgage deductions if they earn less than $500,000, which is about 99 percent of taxpayers, and could declare exemptions of $12,500 for each family member. It seems appealing—a simplified tax...

Praise for Rick Perry’s "Cut, Balance & Grow" Plan See the various comments from people we pay attention to. ________________________________________ “Rick Perry announced his tax plan today, which I’ll go on record as saying I, El Rushbo, think is great. It’s fabulous. I like it. … This is why a lot of people are going to like it. It is a return to fiscal sanity.” Rush Limbaugh on “The Rush Limbaugh Show,” 10/25/11 “This program he’s come up with is a great program, this tax plan. … Perry has come up with one hell of a proposal.” Mark Levin on...

A Washington Post/ABC News poll released Wednesday morning found that Americans are divided on tax plans proposed by two of the leading contenders for the Republican presidential nomination, businessman Herman Cain and Texas Gov. Rick Perry. The poll found that a majority of Republican voters favor the flat tax but a majority oppose Cain’s plan. The poll found only 36 percent of the total population surveyed favoring Cain’s “9-9-9 plan.” The plan, which has become one of the cornerstones of Cain’s campaign, would establish the federal income tax and the corporate tax rate at 9 percent while adding a national...

A lot of people are wondering: Given that Rick Perry’s flat-tax plan would effectively lower tax rates for nearly every American, what will it do to the budget deficit? We have at least one initial answer to that question. The Perry campaign has enlisted economist John Dunham to estimate the fiscal impact of the governor’s new tax plan. According to Dunham’s analysis, a CBO-style “static analysis” of the tax plan will yield revenues $588.9 billion lower than “those currently assumed in the Congressional Budget Office’s forecasts,” with total revenues equaling 18.1 percent of GDP. Using a dynamic scoring system that...

p>As I wrote in an earlier post, an outside consulting firm hired by the Rick Perry presidential campaign has analyzed the revenue and growth impacts of his flat tax plan as follows: 1. Under static scoring — assuming no growth impact from a more efficient, pro-investment tax code — the Perry Tax Plan (call it PTP-SS) would raise $4.7 trillion less than the Congressional Budget Office baseline forecast from 2014-2020. Of course, that forecast assumes all the Bush tax cuts expire, which is highly unlikely. Yet even under that scenario, revenue-to-GDP would be back to its historical average of around...

GRAY COURT, S.C. – Rick Perry, Republican presidential candidate and Texas governor, has released an economic plan full of long-held conservative goals, including personal accounts for Social Security, an optional flat tax, major spending cuts and a series of tax cuts. The plan would reduce the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent, eliminate taxes on dividends and many capital gains and essentially cap individual tax rates at 20 percent. Perry argues these tax cuts will spur economic growth by creating a more favorable environment for wealthy people and corporations to start or expand businesses. But without significant...

Fiscal Policy: This is a time for big ideas that take some political risk. Rick Perry's flat-tax solution largely fits that bill, and so do the proposals from most others in the GOP field. Then there's Romney. Perry this week finally unveiled the sort of detailed economic plan that, in a well-planned campaign, he would've had ready a couple of months ago. So it may be too late to help him much. But it's never too late to inject good ideas into the political mix. Perry's plan isn't perfect, but it would be a huge improvement over the laws in...

Mark Levin is very impressed with Rick Perry’s new economic and tax proposal that Perry announced today. video/audio at link

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Rick Perry announced his tax plan today, which I'll go on record as saying I, El Rushbo, think is great. It's fabulous. I like it. And the left is coming unhinged. We have just two examples. First from Debbie "Blabbermouth" Schultz, who was on MSNBC today, interviewed by the anchor Thomas Roberts, who said, "What is your reaction when you hear how Rick Perry is talking about President Obama and the fact that he says he's only given big government schemes that have failed the American people?" SCHULTZ: My reaction to Rick Perry's new-old plan is that...

Rick Perry was in a terrible bind. His initial campaign boomlet had busted; his debate performances turned off millions of Republicans; and he was in danger of becoming irrelevant in the 2012 race for President. He was – and maybe still is – desperate. This is precisely the time when politicians tend to do incredibly dumb things. Perry didn’t; instead, he brought forth an economic plan that is politically doable and will be a clear benefit to the country (even if parts of it are rather opaque). Today, Perry will put forth an economic plan outlined in his Wall Street...

With all of the attention falling on Rick Perry and the rollout of his economic plan based on flat-tax reforms, many may have missed Newt Gingrich’s column in the Quad City Times that covers his own plan. Gingrich has discussed his plan on a number of occasions, including the debates, and it does sound … oddly familiar. In fact, it goes further than Perry’s plan does in reducing tax rates: The key to a robust recovery in job creation is to simplify the tax code and maximize capital investment, which begins with eliminating the capital gains tax and the death...

Even as Rick Perry rolled out his own flat tax proposal, Newt Gingrich was quick to point out that he’s been a flat tax proponent since 1997. (“There are things I would to do, like a flat tax with virtual elimination of the IRS,” he said, back when he was Speaker of the House.) Gingrich has his own flat tax plan on the table for 2012, and would like to “bump plans” with Rick Perry. To this end, he published a point-by-point comparison on his website. Right off the bat, I notice that Gingrich’s plan is also optional, although his...

I expect Gov. Perry’s flat tax plan to give him a significant boost in the polls. Many conservative and Republican voters who were initially attracted to Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 plan were likely enthused with the idea of bringing simplicity, transparency, and fairness to our tax system. Still, as details of Cain’s plan – and the additional consumption tax – unfolded, voters have been looking for an alternative. In fact, despite Cain's recent surge, his tax plan is likely the reason there’s still so much uncertainty surrounding him as a candidate. By putting forth a promising – and more realistic tax...

You can get full details at the link, but here is the outline of Rick Perry's "Cut, Balance, and Grow" Plan. Fix the Tax Code Institute Individual Flat Income Tax Rate of 20% Allow Individuals to Choose Between Existing Tax Code or New Flat Tax System Preserve Deductions for Mortgage Interest, Charity, and State/Local Taxes Eliminate Tax on Social Security Benefits No Federal Sales Tax or Value-Added Tax Eliminate Tax on Qualified Dividends and Long-Term Capital Gains Eliminate the Death Tax Eliminate Corporate Loopholes and Special-Interest Tax Breaks Reduce Corporate Income Tax Rate to 20% to Enhance American Competitiveness Enhance...

Tune in this morning at 11a.m. Eastern for the live feed of Perry's “Cut, Balance and Grow” announcement. Includes flat tax reform plan. Live feed from: http://www.rickperry.org linked here. (Also see Bill O'Reilly interview Governor Perry on his plan tonight on Fox)

Texas Gov. Rick Perry tonight, in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, previewed his tax and spending plan, officially called the “cut, balance and grow” plan, which aims to revamp the tax code, balance the budget, reform entitlement programs and create jobs. “The folks in Washington might not like to hear it, but the plain truth is the U.S. government spends too much. Taxes are too high, too complex, and too riddled with special interest loopholes. And our expensive entitlement system is unsustainable in the long run,” Perry wrote in the Wall Street Journal. “Without significant change quickly, our...

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.

We are finally starting to get the details about Texas Gov. Rick Perry's flat tax plan to be unveiled formally on Tuesday. Perry insiders confirm that the flat tax will have a rate of 20%, and tax filers will be able to choose between the flat tax and the current code. This means that workers won't "be forced into the flat tax if they like the current system," a Perry advisor tells me. It would also include a standard deduction of $12,500 for each person in the household. Mr. Perry said during the last GOP presidential debate that he would...

Perry to Propose Optional Flat Income Tax of 20% Carl Cameron October 24, 2011 Texas Governor Rick Perry is formally unveiling his flat tax proposal Tuesday in South Carolina. His campaign hopes the plan will gain traction with people who are fed up with the current tax system. Sources tell Fox News it will be an optional 20% flat income tax with a $12,500.00 deduction per individual, per household. Taxpayers may otherwise choose to keep paying under existing IRS code.

There's more news than just a new tax plan coming out of Rick Perry's presidential campaign this week. In addition to his highly anticipated flat tax proposal to be announced tomorrow, the Texas governor and former front runner in the GOP presidential sweepstakes is shaking up his campaign staff big time.