Perry Rolls Out Optional 20 Percent Flat Tax

After a dreadful two months on the campaign trail, Texas Governor and GOP presidential hopeful Rick Perry plans to turn a corner after unveiling a new tax plan Tuesday known as the “Cut, Balance and Grow” plan.  

Under Perry’s plan, Americans will be able to choose between their current income tax rate or switch to a 20 percent flat tax rate. In a plan not unlike that of pizza mogul Herman Cain, Perry said the flat tax works to simplify an “incomprehensible” and “complex” tax code and would allow Americans to “file their taxes on a postcard.” 

Perry appealed to the younger generation of American workers in a proposal that will surely grab the attention of both critics and supporters. Under Perry’s plan, these young workers would be given the option to own their contributions to Social Security as a new-form retirement package. 

The Texas governor also proposed to cap spending at 18 percent of GDP and he echoed calls by congressional conservatives for a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution. In his plan, Perry said he hopes to balance the budget by 2020. 

“It will be an extremely difficult task exacerbated by the current economic crisis and our need for significant tax cuts to spur growth,” Perry wrote. “But that growth is what will get us to balance, if we are willing to make the hard decisions of cutting.”

Perry’s plan, however, fell short in terms of revealing details on whether his new tax plan would generate the same revenues that the current tax code does, something Cain said his “9-9-9” plan does.

“Cut, Balance and Grow strikes a major blow against the Washington-knows-best mindset,” Perry wrote. “Fixing America’s tax, spending and entitlement cultures will not be easy. But the status quo of byzantine taxes, loose spending and the perpetual delay of entitlement reform is a recipe for disaster.”

DNC Targets Romney In Arizona

The Democratic National Committee is running television ads against GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney in Arizona, a historically red state.

The ad zeros in on comments the former Massachusetts Governor made urging the government to take a hands-off approach to the foreclosure crisis.

“Almost half of Arizona homeowners [are] underwater,” the ad’s voiceover states. “Mitt Romney’s message to Arizonans: you’re on your own.”

In a recorded meeting with the Las Vegas Review Journal’s Editorial Board, Romney stated that he would allow the housing crisis “run its course and hit the bottom.

“Allow investors to buy homes, put renters in them, fix the homes up and let it turn around and come back up,” Romney continued. “The Obama administration has slow-walked the foreclosure process that has long existed, and as a result we still have a foreclosure overhang.”

Democrats were quick to pick up on the comments as evidence that Romney was out of touch, adding that Romney made the comments while in Nevada, a state hit particularly hard by foreclosures.

Ex-Bachmann Staffers Decry Campaign As "Cruel," "Unprofessional"

Former staffers from the New Hampshire branch of Michele Bachmann’s struggling Presidential campaign explained their decision to depart en-masse Monday, claiming that they were treated in an “unprofessional, dishonest, and at times cruel” manner by the national campaign.

In a statement released by “Team NH-Bachmann for President,” the former staffers say that they were left out of strategy discussions and were neglected for weeks by the national campaign.

They go on to argue that this behavior didn’t just affect them, but was also directed toward New Hampshire voters.

“These are our neighbors and our friends, and some within the national team treated them more as a nuisance than as potential supporters,” the statement reads.

The staffers note that despite their frustration, they feel no ill will toward Michele Bachmann, adding that they will continue to help Republicans attempt to unseat President Obama.

“The NH team is committed to making Obama a one-term president, but it will be through other organizations/campaigns,” the staffers explained.

Biden Keeping 2016 On The Table

Vice President Joe Biden hinted last week that he may run for his boss’s job in 2016.

In an interview with CNN’s Candy Crowley that aired Sunday, Biden said that he is focusing on helping President Barack Obama win re-election, but that he has not taken a future White House bid off the table.

“I’ll make up my mind on that later,” Biden said. “I’m not closing anything.”

Addressing possible concerns over his age, 68, Biden noted that he was “in probably the best shape I’ve been in my life.”

Biden is no stranger to Presidential politics. If he enters the 2016 race, it will be his third campaign, having run for the Democratic nomination in 1988 and 2008.

The Vice President also commented on the current campaign season, saying that it is going to be an uphill battle for both parties.

“No one is guaranteed anything,” Biden remarked. “This is going to be a tough election. The country has inherited very difficult political and economic times.”

GOP Unhappy With Obama's Iraq Announcement

Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) took umbrage today with President Obama’s decision to withdraw almost all U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of this year.

In a statement, Graham said, “I respectfully disagree with President Obama. I feel all we have worked for, fought for, and sacrificed for is very much in jeopardy by today’s announcement. I hope I am wrong and the President is right, but I fear this decision has set in motion events that will come back to haunt our country.”

Graham, who has visited Iraq several times since the U.S-led invasion occurred back in 2003, has been an ardent supporter of the war. He served as an influential voice in favor of the 2007 troop “surge,” which many observers say worked to reduce sectarian violence in Iraq.

“If we’re not smart enough to work with the Iraqis, to have 10-15,000 American troops in Iraq in 2012, Iraq could go to hell,” Graham said during an interview with CBS News earlier this year.

McCain said the decision “marks a harmful and sad setback for the United States in the world.”

During his 2008 presidential campaign, McCain feverishly opposed Obama’s anti-war stance, which resonated with a majority of voters. At one point, he famously said that he’d keep U.S. troops in Iraq for 100 more years if necessary.

“This decision will be viewed as a strategic victory for our enemies in the Middle East, especially the Iranian regime, which has worked relentlessly to ensure a full withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq,” McCain said. “It is a consequential failure of both the Obama Administration — which has been more focused on withdrawing from Iraq than succeeding in Iraq since it came into office — as well as the Iraqi government.”

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) was not as harsh on the president’s decision as his Republican colleagues in the Senate, but he did, however, express reluctance, saying the move could compromise the progress Iraq made over the past nine years.

“While I’m concerned that a full withdrawal could jeopardize those gains, I’m hopeful that both countries will work together to guarantee that a free and democratic Iraq remains a strong and stable partner for the United States in the Middle East,” Boehner said in a statement.

A pair of current GOP candidates also criticized the president’s decision.

In a statement, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney said, “President Obama’s astonishing failure to secure an orderly transition in Iraq has unnecessarily put at risk the victories that were won through the blood and sacrifice of thousands of American men and women. The unavoidable question is whether this decision is the result of a naked political calculation or simply sheer ineptitude in negotiations with the Iraqi government. The American people deserve to hear the recommendations that were made by our military commanders in Iraq.”

Meanwhile, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) said the move “represents the complete failure of President Obama to secure an agreement with Iraq for our troops to remain there to preserve the peace and demonstrates how far our foreign policy leadership has fallen.”

This story was updated at 3:50 pm.