With Republican candidates latching onto the idea of a flat tax (Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan has one, Rick Perry
just got Steve Forbes' endorsement for proposing one on Friday, and Newt Gingrich is
now in favor of an optional one),
The New York Times wonders which side of the issue Mitt Romney will come down on.
As several leading Republican presidential candidates embrace a flat tax as a core campaign position, one contender stands out in not doing so: Mitt Romney, who has a long record of criticizing such plans and famously derided Steve Forbes’s 1996 proposal as a “tax cut for fat cats.”
Lately, though, his tone has been more positive. “I love a flat tax,” he said in August.
But, as the Times points out (and as I pointed out in August when Romney first made his comments), while Romney says he loves the flat tax, he also says it might not be a good idea.
Mr. Romney also is always careful to emphasize — as he did in his comments two months ago — that he would never support any plan that hurts the middle class and helps the wealthy. But by replacing the graduated income tax with one single rate everyone pays, that is precisely what flat tax plans generally do, at least those that try to generate anywhere near the same tax revenue.
You have to give Mitt Romney some credit here. He just might be the only candidate willing to say that he might oppose an idea that he loves because it's a bad idea. I'm not sure if that's a hate-love relationship, or a love-hate relationship, but it's certainly the kind of thing that takes the art of flip-flopping into a whole new dimension.
But as Republicans breathlessly wait to learn whether Romney will flop-flip, flip-flop, or perhaps some weird new mixture of the two, one thing that they should keep in mind is that the guy their establishment wants to nominate as President refused to support the Bush tax cuts when they were up for a vote in 2003. Of course, he's already flip-flopped on those. For now, at least.