Katrina, i m not sure how well that bodes with what he does the storms that might be coming his way with the rick perry campaign, what do you think about the staff changes? well, i think it shows a lot. that he s playing for keeps. one of the things that s important to note about rick perry is he has a lot of money in the bank. that s not just going to be spent on negative advertising at the end, bashing mit romney as he tries to sort of reclaim that front runner status for himself. i think it will also be spent on the staff that will help him have smart messaging. the people that you mentioned that he announced he brought on today, several of them had sort of worked on flat tax proposals. this is what he s releasing in the next couple days, he will have the economic plan he pushes in south carolina, which by the way is a state we haven t mentioned yet. also very important when it comes to social conservatives but also very important when you are looking at the economy and what peopl
Katrina, i m not sure how well that bodes with what he does the storms that might be coming his way with the rick perry campaign, what do you think about the staff changes? well, i think it shows a lot. that he s playing for keeps. one of the things that s important to note about rick perry is he has a lot of money in the bank. that s not just going to be spent on negative advertising at the end, bashing mit romney as he tries to sort of reclaim that front runner status for himself. i think it will also be spent on the staff that will help him have smart messaging. the people that you mentioned that he announced he brought on today, several of them had sort of worked on flat tax proposals. this is what he s releasing in the next couple days, he will have the economic plan he pushes in south carolina, which by the way is a state we haven t mentioned yet. also very important when it comes to social conservatives but also very important when you are looking at the economy and what peopl
i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. captions by vitac www.vitac.com he s plunging in the polls and in need of a boost. will a new plan help rick perry climb back to the top of the republican race? his rival, herman cain, is leading the pack according to a brand new poll and perry is a distant fifth with cain apparently benefitting from his 9-9-9 tax plan, perry today unveiled his own new tax plan and 20 is the magic number. he proposes a flat tax of 20% for individuals and corporations, but in a twist, perry would let people choose to pay his flat tax rate or file under the current system, which he derived. the size of the current code is more than 72,000 pages. that s represented by this palate right over here and the reams of paper. that s what the current tax code looks like. the best representation of my plan is this postcard. this is is size of what we re talking about right here. taxpayers will be able to fill this out and file their taxes on that.
Herman cain says you can abolish the irs if you enact his 9-9-9 plan because his plan is so simple. now he s adding complications only the irs could enforce. robert reich will join me to discuss the problems with the cain plan and the fantasy in all republican flat tax proposals. and following up on a point made by andrea mitchell in our first segment, how many lives could have been saved in iraq if barack obama had a louder microphone back in 2002? [ sighs ] [ bird chirps ] [ bird squawks ] [ bird screeching ]
Back to the 9-9-9 plan is that it is absurd throughout at every stage it is absurd. but it is a version of an old republican kind of honored republican idea in many circles, the flat tax. and all of these flat tax proposals in the past, in the present, what is surely to be rick perry s flat tax proposal, we re told is coming up, they re all filled with the problems exemplified by herman cain s 9-9-9 plan. aren t they? well, they are all fraudulent. i mean, the flat tax is a fraud. let s be very clear about this. on two grounds. one ground, you ve already talked about, lawrence, and that is that innestingevitably there going to be exemptions and deductions because life is complicated, people are complicated, businesses are complicated and to get fairness you re going to have to have them. secondly, if you have a flat tax, you re inevitably going to reduce the taxes of people at the top who in the progressive