Full Article
According to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll, 25% of Republican primary voters currently favor Businessman Herman Cain as the potential GOP presidential nominee, 21% prefer former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and the rest of the field is at 10% or less. But the real headline is that 80% of respondents say they have yet to make up their minds.
While the hopes for an exciting late entry (Chris Christie, Sarah Palin, etc.) have been dashed, that 80% who have yet to give their final answer offer a huge opportunity for existing candidates near the back of the pack to surge forward. Trying to make that kind of move this week is Texas Governor Rick Perry.
With a new campaign team and a just announced tax and spending reform plan, Mr. Perry could recover ground lost in recent debates and start getting some positive attention from primary voters again.
Billed as the ‘Cut, Balance, Grow’; the Perry plan includes an optional 20 percent flat tax combined with an allowance that would result in a family of four not paying any federal tax on their first $50,000 of annual income. The flat tax would eliminate the death tax, the capital gains tax and the double tax on dividends encouraging the kind of savings and investment that would stimulate real economic growth. The plan would also eliminate many of the of the deductions, exemptions, loopholes, credits and shelters for the wealthy that so many American oppose but it would retain the reasonable deductions for charitable contributions, home mortgage interest and state and local taxes for those with an annual income under $500,000.
Beyond significant tax reform, Mr. Perry’s plan would cap federal spending at 18% of the gross domestic product and take on the issue of entitlement reform. Younger workers would be given “the option to own their Social Security contributions through personal retirement accounts that Washington politicians can never raid. Because young workers will own their contributions, they will be free to seek a market rate of return if they choose, and to leave their retirement savings to their dependents when they die.”
And in what is sure to resonate with the majority of Republican primary voters, if all the reforms contained in the Cut, Balance, Grow plan are enacted; they would result in a balanced federal budget by the year 2020.
These truly conservative ideas could go a long way toward helping some of that 80% make up their minds.
Thanks for posting the whole thing.
Bloggers that use FR to get hits are pretty scummy.