Rick Perry will have you know that his world is flat.
Flat as pancake and flatter than Herman Cain's bald head, and god yes, way flatter than Romney's humor or Huntsman's electoral pulse.
Unless you like the world the way it is, bumps and all, in which case he'll let you know that it is bumpy, bumpier than a Republican front-runner's poll numbers, way way bumpier than how the dog felt tied to the top of Romney's car.
In a nutshell (a most appropriate receptacle), Mr Perry's tax plan announced in the Wall Street Journal today promises to be whatever you want it to be, only more so.
If you read the title and assumed I was quoting Emma Goldman or St. Francis, I apologize. But if you join me below the fold, we can talk about the Radical Miracle-Monger from Texas and his plan to come back from the Dead in the Republican Primary.
First, the highlights of the plan:
The plan starts with giving Americans a choice between a new, flat tax rate of 20% or their current income tax rate. The new flat tax preserves mortgage interest, charitable and state and local tax exemptions for families earning less than $500,000 annually, and it increases the standard deduction to $12,500 for individuals and dependents.
Hmmm. Choice ... goood! Voter like choice! Except that "Choice" implies some need for cogitation that this plan entirely bypasses. This plan is as much about choice as is rolling out a banquet of hot delicious swill to hungry pigs, and posing before them the alternatives of feasting or fasting. And I'm starting out with a far higher level of respect for the mental capabilities of pigs than Mr. Perry does the electorate.
Well, how many segments of the population can one plan pander to, especially when the plan is trumpeted as a Flat Tax that eliminates all distinctions of class, race, domicile and marital status? Mr. Perry goes for the world record here.
- Pander to seniors by eliminating taxes on Social Security
- Pander to corporations by allowing to bring their overseas profits home whlle paying a minimal 5.25% tax
- Pander to the dying rich and their greedy spawn by eliminating death aka estate taxes
- Pander to charities by retaining the charitable tax deduction
- Pander to the living rich and their greedy spawn by eliminating capital gains and dividends taxes
- Pander to homeowners by allowing them to keep the mortgage deduction
- Pander to entrepreneurs by promising them incentives
- Pander to corporations (again) by reducing their tax rates to 20%
- Pander to the unemployed by promising them jobs
- Pander to corporations (yet again) by promising to never tax profits they make overseas ever again
And I gave up by the 4th paragraph of the WSJ article ...
If you remember from last week, Cain was attacked on 9-9-9 because it would increase taxes on the lower 90% of the population. Rick completely avoids any possibility of criticism through a pre-emptive pander that even had the pros shaking their heads -- if you don't like what he says, you can keep what you got!
Alongside Perry's proposal, Cain's 9-9-9 looks Serious and Romney's 59 point plan a testament to Fiscal Rectitude.
And Perry's target is unabashedly the Rich Republican Donor and the Low Information Republican Voter. The former knows of Rick's ace reputation for generating solid returns on campaign contributions, and the latter will know whatever they see on Perry's TV blitz two days before the primary.
And Rick Perry is nothing if not a machine for turning a hurricane of dollars from donors into a flood of un-information for the uninformed.
Now being cynical leftist types, you're wondering, "What's the Catch?" Well, it's always the same catch when it involves a Texan millionaire who wants to pander his way to the Presidency.
But not to worry, says Mr. Perry.
Under my plan, we will establish a clear goal of balancing the budget by 2020. It will be an extremely difficult task exacerbated by the current economic crisis and our need for significant tax cuts to spur growth. But that growth is what will get us to balance, if we are willing to make the hard decisions of cutting.
See? There a plan to establish a goal in the future to balance the budget. Sometime right after the tax-cuts have paid for themselves. Let's say towards the end of Perry's second term. Or if you're a glutton for exactitude why don't we shoot for February 1, 2020?
To show you that he's serious, Perry talks about his "hard decisions" to cut taxes, balanced budget amendments that Congress will never pass and the easy decision to deny raises for federal employees.
As Krugman recently said:
But this seems like a good time to repeat, once again, the truth about federal spending: Your federal government is basically an insurance company with an army. The vast bulk of its spending goes to the big five: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, defense, and interest on the debt.
But what about recent deficits? They’re caused mainly by a fall in revenue and a mostly automatic increase in spending on safety-net programs. Oh, and the federal government has been providing aid to state and local governments, largely to limit layoffs of schoolteachers.
...
And if you want smaller government, either you’re talking about cuts in the big five, or you have no idea what you’re talking about.
I guess Perry will be content with Option B.
Coming soon: Bachman's "Choose Your Own Rate" Tax Plan