Republinomics: Dumber Than a Sack of Hammers

Rick "I Like 'Kielbasa'" Perry released his super-duper tax plan today, after nearly a week of being challenged by the other primary clowns on what specific fixes he had in mind. Good thing too, 'cause 9-9-9 was running stale and we all needed a fresh laugh.

Oh lord, where to start... I don't know if there's some backroom competition to see who can come up with the most laughably wrong policy and still get people to go along with it but if so Perry has secured himself the gold. It relies on the cherished Flat Tax myth, proposing an across the board 20% on income.

- And just as a brief aside, I'm really fascinated by the whole Flat Tax phenomenon. On paper, it works. In practice, it fails miserably. I'll admit I'm not the best at the whole 'rithmatic thingy, but it just strikes me as the universe screwing with us.

Anyway, Perry's strokin' the GOP's libertarian supporters who crave national suicide. That's all good, that's SOP - But then he tacks on, "Oh yeah, it's all optional. If you like your current tax bracket - complete with reductions - go ahead and keep paying that!"

What?

Watch - these suckers will buy anything!

Even if you're a fan of the Flat Tax, this is a retarded plan. It's a tax break in all but name to people who currently pay more than 20%. That means a net revenue loss. There's no excuse for this other than Perry is desperately trying to woo the minarchist screwballs who always vote Republican anyway while at the same time keeping his campaign appealing to anyone sane.

There's more to the plan, your standard "business good/regulation bad" cant that got the economy into this mess in the first place. But that's to be expected from the whole field these days - including most Democrats. Bullshit is the only thing politicians can be bothered to push in an election year and despite the ever rising #OWS movement, they're convinced they can still campaign on the same old fictions.