Perry Rolls Out '20-20' Flat Tax Plan

Rick Perry has rolled out a flat tax plan to rival Herman Cain's "9-9-9" plan. The Texan's "20-20" plan—or, as he calls it, "Cut, Balance, and Grow"—cuts the corporate tax rate from 35% to 20% and allows individuals to choose between paying either 20% or their current income tax rate. "Taxes are too high, too complex, and too riddled with special interest loopholes," but this plan is so simple that Americans will be able to "file their taxes on a postcard," Perry writes in the Wall Street Journal.

The plan also calls for eliminating the tax on Social Security benefits, balancing the budget by 2020, and capping federal spending at 18% of GDP. The corporate tax rate would be temporarily cut to just 5.25% to "encourage the swift repatriation of some of the $1.4 trillion estimated to be parked overseas." Perry plans to further explain the plan at a campaign appearance in South Carolina today. Steve Forbes, the billionaire who outlined a flat tax plan of his own during presidential campaigns in 1996 and 2000, has endorsed Perry. (More Rick Perry stories.)