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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...