Rick Perry is set to reveal to the nation why he has been hiding his economic plan for so long. Debate after debate Perry stood back and watched Herman Cain talk about 999 and Romney explain why his plan is longer than War and Peace. Perhaps it was calculated strategy or maybe Perry simply didn't have a plan. But look out, now he does. When taking a look at the plan I am reminded of the story The Wizard of Oz and Rick Perry is playing the Tin Man. He desperately needs a heart.
The center piece of his plan is an optional 20% flat tax rate. Optional? What the heck does that mean? That means if you like your current tax rate, you can keep it but if not, you can take this 20% rate. Hmmm, why would someone keep their rate? Obviously if their current rate is lower than the 20%. This is actually a nice option for Perry; giving the working poor the option of paying their current rate. The heartless problem is transparently on the other side"
Who would take the newly offered 20% rate? Obviously those who are currently paying more than 20%. Currently someone earning $100,000 in taxable income, which means after deductions, is paying a 22% rate. So this proposal essentially means that everyone with taxable income of $100,000 or more will be receiving a tax DECREASE with Perry's proposal. Keep in mind that the higher you go away from 100K the greater the tax break! This is not corporate welfare, it is millionaire welfare. It will be packaged under the need for "simplicity" in the tax code and needing "close loopholes." The option side of this will be pushed hard by Perry who will try to play the Wizard and tell you to not look behind the curtain. As long as we are looking at the optional facet on the poor side of 20% it will seem very fair. The heartlessness resides on the other side of the 20% where only the rich continue to benefit from this plan.
Since obviously everyone higher than a 20% tax rate will be opting in, how exactly does the Tin Man from Texas plan on paying for this? The next plank in his scheme is to lower the corporate tax rate to 5.25% to encourage companies to move back to the US. Never mind that these companies essentially stuck their fingers in the collective eye of America by taking their greed to third world countries where the lack of laws could be exploited for highest gain. Never mind that it is horrific laws and trade agreements that allowed them to leave without a problem to begin with. Perry would also cut taxes on long term investments and capital gains; you know the thing every working class family needs"
No, once again, the average middle class to working poor family does not have long term investments because they are still trying to survive in the short term. But Perry doesn't care about that because they are not his "base." His base like the last guy from Texas is the "haves" and the "have mores." Perry's plan continues by freezing all government hiring, spending and regulations as well as "auditing" all regulations passed since 2008. Hmmm, what happened in 2008? Oh that's right; that was when Obama came into office. But freezing all federal activity will in fact free him up to usher in the Tea Party favorite idea -- the balanced budget amendment. Of course the BBA is so intellectually vacuous I am amazed it still gets any attention. Essentially the Tea Partiers argue that governments should have to balance their checkbook like a family does. This is essentially stupid on a cosmic scale. First of all, it is not even like mixing apples and oranges. It is like mixing apples and orangutans. A family unit does not have the same responsibility, threat level, or complexity of need that a government has. To pretend they do or should is to either be woefully ignorant or too inane to hold office.
No, the true genius behind the BBA is that it is designed to slowly choke off all government interaction in domestic life. Oh, a hurricane devastated your state? Well we would love to help but you didn't budget for it. So before you can allocate any relief money, you have to cut it first from somewhere else. That is the true insidious design behind the Balanced Budget Amendment nonsense. It comes down to a battle of ideologies. One says that the federal government should have a role in domestic issues and the other says it should only be there to blow other countries up. And regulations? Since when did this become a dirty word? It was the lack of regulations that led to the abuses on Wall Street. The truth is that if you leave companies unchecked, they will only exist to do the right thing by their profit margins not the American people. Check what happened right after the Industrial Revolution. Perry wants a moratorium on regulations? That means the FDA doesn't check your food. No one checks your airplane. These free market morons boil everything down to consumer choice. The reality is that their honest position is that if you see an airline that has a flight crash because of poor maintenance, you have the right in a free market to not choose that airline. Unless of course you were ON the flight that crashed - then you don't get a mulligan.
Another plank in this heartless plan is to allow younger people to set up retirement plans with their social security taxes. This of course returns even more money to the richest one percent and if your plan goes belly up, well that was just the free market at work -- enjoy those retirement years as part of the homeless! The reality is that younger people do not yet "own" their golden years. So allowing them to opt out will result in the destruction of the safety net that so many seniors rely upon. Perry calls this monstrosity -- "Cut, Balance and Grow." He stated today, "Cut, balance and grow strikes a major blow against the Washington-knows-best mind-set. It takes money from spendthrift bureaucrats and returns it to families""
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