Rick Perry: Cut, Balance & Grow

GOP Presidential Candidate Governor Rick Perry of Texas released his tax and budget plan today, entitled "Cut, Balance & Grow".  I encourage all my readers to download the PDF from Gov. Perry's website and read the full plan. I'll be citing page numbers from the document below.

The quick hit - what would this do for or to me and my family?

The first evaluation of Gov. Perry's plan I did was how it would have altered my 2010 taxes had the plan already been in force and we opted to file under his 20% flat tax with the simplified tax form. In 2010, we paid taxes with a net effective rate of 14% after all deductions, exemptions, and credits. Under the Perry plan, our taxable income would have been reduced by 41.3% and our federal tax due would have dropped by 16.7%, even with the net higher tax rate of 20% on taxable income. In real dollars and cents, this would have put just over $2,000 back in my family's wallet. On that, I have no complaints whatsoever and just from my own personal financial perspective, the plan looks good.

Nevertheless, my own personal situation does not make this a winner for the Nation. For now, I'm going to mainly analyze the tax provisions. The larger issues such as balancing the budget and entitlement reforms  deserve more attention than I can give now. So, let's look at the nuts and bolts.

How Not to Run for President

Who do I support for President? I'm firmly in the "Not Romney" crowd. I passionately want to vote for a candidate. I'm sick and tired of picking the "least worst". With each passing day though, the forces are aligning to anoint Mitt Romney the GOP standard bearer. If that's what happens, my vote in the Pennsylvania primary will be meaningless and I'll have the same enthusiasm to vote for Romney in 2012 that I had for McCain in 2008 - which is to say, none.

I'll admit to being a fan of what I'll term the "fictitious" Rick Perry, that is, the Rick Perry prior to announcing his Presidential run and his mind-boggingly poor debate performances. The campaign produced a fantastic video which would be even better if the candidate acted as confident and as tenacious as he's portrayed 24-by-7.

I love this video, and yes, it makes me yearn for a candidate - perhaps Governor Perry - who is not afraid to attack President Obama, Mitt Romney, and the entire Republican establishment with every waking moment, breath, and sound out of their mouth.

I don't claim to be an expert on Presidential campaigns, but I do consider myself at least versed in common sense. Governor Perry's campaign thus far has shown none. Had I been running Governor Perry's campaign, here's what I would have done differently.