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.
John Avlon is the definition of playing both sides of the political fence. Anyone who goes on about how wingnuts have wrecked America and is giving Rick Perry and Dick Armey advice on how to move the Overton Window (and worked for Rudy Giuliani's 2008 campaign) was never a "centrist" to begin with, he *is* the wingnut he purportedly hates.
The fact he's employed by both the Daily Beast and CNN tells you everything you need to know about those two outfits, too.
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