First Read:
*** Tax pressure: In 2004, Howard Dean moved John Kerry and the rest of the Democratic field to the left on the Iraq war. In 2008, John Edwards forced both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to go big on health-care reform. And this presidential cycle, Herman Cain -- with his 9-9-9 plan -- is moving the GOP field on flat taxes.
Tomorrow, from South Carolina, Rick Perry will unveil his flat-tax proposal. And the New York Times has observed that Mitt Romney, who has criticized the flat tax in the past, has shifted his tone. “I love a flat tax,” he said in August. The Times adds that Romney “is always careful to emphasize — as he did in his comments two months ago — that he would never support any plan that hurts the middle class and helps the wealthy. But by replacing the graduated income tax with one single rate everyone pays, that is precisely what flat tax plans generally do, at least those that try to generate anywhere near the same tax revenue.”
*** Watching Romney: The reason why Romney is saying he loves a flat tax -- but won’t embrace it completely, at least so far -- is because he doesn’t want to seem out of sync with a political party that truly wants to transform the tax code. It will be interesting to see what Romney decides to do in the coming weeks. It’s a fine line: Flat-tax proposals sell well to the GOP base, but they have failed to win over swing voters in competitive elections because of the attacks 1) that they could raise taxes on some middle-class Americans, and 2) that they could take away popular tax deductions (on mortgages and children). This is another case where Romney is trying to keep himself from being boxed in for the general election. That said, dumping the tax code is gaining REAL traction with Republicans.
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