Thatcher and Reagan were socialists compared to what Newt Gingrich is proposing
ABC News:
Newt Gingrich said today that he paid a 31 percent tax rate in 2010 and plans to release his tax returns for 2010 Thursday, followed by the 2011 documents.
Republican presidential contender Newt Gingrich said his goal wasn't to criticize Mitt Romney, who paid just 15 percent in taxes. Instead, Gingrich said everybody should have the option to pay taxes at the same rate as Romney.
“My goal is not to raise Mitt Romney’s taxes. It’s to let everybody pay Mitt Romney’s rate. And so I’m not going to criticize Mitt Romney. I’m going to say, shouldn’t we all have the option of a flat tax at the same rate he was paying.”
That would cut the taxes of the top one percent of earners—including Newt Gingrich—in half, from the current average of 31.2 percent to Romney's 15 percent. How much would it cost to lower every tax bracket to a maximum of 15 percent? Well, here's a back of the envelope calculation based on 2008 tax year returns: something like $250 billion compared to current policy each and every year. And keep in mind, the Bush tax cuts are current policy. So in addition to trillions wasted on the Bush tax cuts, Newt Gingrich would waste trillions more on a 15 percent flat tax option. It's truly crazy.