Rick Perry started the day by keeping the birthers happy, oops, I mean by announcing his flat tax plan. Slate’s John Dickerson got the birther part right. No doubt that the adults within the GOP will shut Rick Perry up quickly on the birther nonsense. But the discussion (presumably in an interview either Sunday or yesterday) shows a lack of discipline. Why step on what you are putting out there as the cornerstone of your candidacy? Look at it this way, candidate Barack Obama was smart enough not to put Reverend Wright out there when he was announcing and running. It’s Campaigning 101.
When I look at the plan itself, there is first the argument for simplicity. David Frum hit that nail on the head in a tweet today. Some coastal folks with high levels of write-offs will get to do their taxes THREE times under the Perry plan. Once under the old rules. Once under the AMT rules (quasi-flat tax #1). Once under the Perry rules. Choose the lowest of the three and go. This is not simple.
And, at bottom, I think it’s going to quickly be scored as being a short run deficit bomb. You can’t cut taxes for everyone (which Perry promised today) and retain the home mortgage and child deductions and still take in the same amount of revenue. This seems self-evident. By all rights, this should put the GOP in an interesting position if the Democrats have the skill to pull it off. If you back this plan, you cannot be deficit serious or you have to - at the same time - commit to drastic cuts of defense and entitlement spending. We shall see. McCain had a similar proposal four years ago, but we were not running the same deficits and we also, um, never thought he’d win. Should be an interesting week running the spreadsheets on this one.
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