HE OUGHT TO TALK OF NOTHING ELSE:

Flat tax is a winner for Perry and U.S. (John Avlon, 10/20/11, CNN)

Rick Perry is calling for a flat tax to stop his campaign from flatlining. But it might be just what he needs to revive his presidential ambitions. Because a flat tax is not just a big idea; it could prove to be both good politics and good policy.

After all, tax simplification is both needed and polls well, and the flat tax promises a simpler approach to paying taxes. And at a time when President Obama is campaigning against the fact that Warren Buffett and his secretary pay different rates, the flat tax idea might just have met its moment for broader-based appeal.

Its virtue is its simplicity. The current tax code contains more words than the Bible, and Americans spend 6 billion hours each year trying to compile with the code. That's time that can be more productively spent elsewhere. In contrast, a flat tax could be calculated during the seventh-inning stretch of a ballgame.

And although the idea might sound like a radical change, the reality is that the flat tax -- popularized by Alvin Rabushka and Robert Hall of the Hoover Institution -- has been implemented successfully in 37 countries, including Russia, many of the thriving Baltic States and the newest nation on Earth, the Republic of South Sudan.

Posted by oj at October 21, 2011 7:30 PM
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