LAS VEGAS — Texas Gov. Rick Perry said Wednesday that he will advocate a flat income-tax system, along with revamping entitlement programs such as Social Security, in the second half of his economic proposal.
Perry previewed his plan before a gathering of the Western Republican Leadership Conference. The speech followed his aggressive debate performance Tuesday night, in which he criticized Herman Cain for proposing a new federal sales tax on top of existing state levies and hit Mitt Romney for using a lawn service in 2006 that hired illegal immigrants.
Perry gave a peek at the second “pillar” of an initiative he is promising to unveil next week, which follows an energy plan presented in Pennsylvania last week that would throw open federal land and water to energy exploration while stripping regulations that discourage drilling.
He would toss the tax code in favor of a flat tax — all filers paying the same rate, as opposed to the current income- tax rates, under which wealthier taxpayers owe a higher percentage of their incomes.
Critics point out that under many such plans, popular deductions such as those for mortgage interest and charitable donations would be lost and that more of the tax burden could shift to the lower and middle classes, depending on the details.
