Rick Perry's Tax Plan: Are You Serious?

Well, Rick Perry’s tax plan is out, and it’s left Kevin Drum of Mother Jones sort of speechless. “What can you even say about this?” he marvels. “It sounds less like a tax plan than a big ol' stew pot of right-wing applause lines.” Perry simply piles on the tax cuts, blithely assuming he’ll pass a balanced budget amendment, and while he’s at it, repeal Obamacare, and Dodd-Frank, and part of Sarbanes-Oxley, and the estate tax, and on and on. “Should we laugh or cry?” Drum asks.

“Can we please spare a moment for the people who are really going to suffer because of this?” he continues. “Yes, I’m talking about whichever poor schlubs at the Tax Policy Center draw the short straw and have to go through the dreary motions of scoring this.” The funniest part? Thanks to Perry’s “gimmick” of allowing everyone to choose the new plan or the old, the tax code won’t even be simplified. “Still no one pays more, and that’s a guarantee. Beat that, Herman Cain.” Click for details on Perry's plan. (A Forbes columnist has a much different take, giving Perry's plan a "solid B+.")