Rick Perry flirts with the idea of repealing the sixteenth amendment and instituting the fair tax in his book Fed Up! The Plum Line’s Greg Sargent asked Perry spokesman Mark Miner if presidential candidate Perry favored repeal of the sixteenth amendment and got this response:
The 16th Amendment instituting a federal income tax starting at one percent has exploded into onerous, complex and confusing tax rates and rules for American workers over the last century. The need for job creation in the wake of the explosion of federal debt and costly entitlement programs, mean the best course of action in the near future is a simpler, flatter and broader tax system that unleashes production, creates jobs, and creates more taxpayers. We can’t undo more than 70 years of progressive taxation and worsening debt obligations overnight.
Sounds like, once again, Perry is distancing himself from a policy idea he considers in his book. There’s a huge difference between “a simpler, flatter and broader” version of the current tax system and switching to a flat tax.