Free Republic

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...