Rick Perry of Texas is seeking to jump-start his Republican presidential campaign by proposing a new tax system: a 20 percent flat rate on individual and corporate income, down from the current 35 percent top rate, and elimination of existing taxes on estates, capital gains and dividends. In an interview with John Harwood, a reporter with CNBC and the New York Times, the Texas governor cast Romney — the GOP frontrunner — as a “fat cat”. Your plan — by cutting the top rate to 20 percent, eliminating dividends and capital gains taxes, would provide a huge tax cut to wealthy people. Year one, year two, you’re going to blow a huge hole in the deficit, right? But without significant spending reductions, the tax cuts could drastically increase the federal budget deficit. “You’ve got to have command of the issues,” said one GOP donor who backs Perry. Conservative activists have long called for the adoption of a flat tax. If you’re looking for somebody that’s going to nibble around the edges, if you’re looking for somebody that’s going to say, “Hey listen we’re not going to make it hard on you, it’s all going to work it out, and it’s just, you know, kumbaya,” I’m not your guy. Romney has proposed raising the retirement age to reform Social Security; Perry adopts an idea even more beloved by conservatives and hated by liberals: allowing young people to put their money into private savings accounts outside the traditional retirement system. He said he likes mentioning conservative falsehoods about President Obama’s birth because “It’s fun to poke him a little bit.” 
 
 Perry is clearly looking to woo tea party conservatives who have been reluctant to back Romney. The shifts come after a series of lackluster debate performances that left Perry trailing not only former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney but also businessman Herman Cain in polls.
– Rick Perry's busy day, one being perceived as his camp's attempt to recharge his flagging campaign, continues in South Carolina as he rolls out his flat tax plan. A key quote from his speech: “Taxes will be cut across all income groups in America, and the net benefit will be more money in Americans’ pockets with greater investment in the private economy." His "Cut, Balance, and Grow" plan puts him to the right of Mitt Romney on fiscal policy, notes the Washington Post. (He wrote about the plan in the Wall Street Journal.) In an earlier interview with the New York Times, Perry said he wasn't bothered that it benefits the rich. "What I care about is them having the dollars to invest in their companies." Other tidbits: On Romney: "I consider him to be a fat cat. I consider what Mitt’s doing kind of nibbling around the edges. I consider what we’re doing bold." On Obama's birth certificate: " It’s a good issue to keep alive. ... It’s fun to poke him a little bit and say, 'Hey, let’s see your grades and your birth certificate.' I don’t have a clue about where the president—and what this birth certificate says. But it’s also a great distraction. "