William F. Buckley’s Legacy, the National Review, Is Not Happy with the Rick Perry Tax Plan – How Can an Ultra Conservative Plan Not Appeal to Ultra Conservatives?

But They Were Always Going to be Mitt Romney Supporters Anyway

As indicated earlier, one should not take Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s tax and spending plan as a serious effort.  Its purpose is to put Mr. Perry to the right of Mr. Romney, and to avoid as much controversy as possible.  That is why for example it does not specify what government spending would be cut and how high the age requirements would be raised for Social Security and Medicare.

The National Review is the main publication of mainstream Conservative thinking (thinking??).  Its editorial was not all that happy with Mr. Perry and his plan.  Their main concern is the impact on the deficit, which would be huge if Mr. Perry’s plan were ever enacted.

No detailed analysis of how much revenue the plan would raise has been done, but it seems highly likely that the number would be much lower than under the current system, and lower than Perry’s team is claiming. Governor Perry has already had to put an optimistic gloss on his proposed spending cuts to get his numbers to balance. If his revenue estimates are also too optimistic then the net effect of his proposals will be to make our already precarious budgetary position worse. The personal accounts Perry wants to introduce to Social Security will also make the budget deficit worse for many years, which is a bigger problem now than it would have been a decade ago.

Of course, Conservatives are not willing to go all out against Mr. Perry, and so they do not point out that his support for a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution, if approved, would mean he has a tax and spending plan that is Unconstitutional since there is no way it could result in a balanced budget.

The National Review was not completely unsupportive of Mr. Perry’s ideas (?)

But Perry’s economic plan also includes some real steps forward on spending. Perry has embraced the concept of block-granting Medicaid to the states, which now appears to be a consensus position of the party. More daringly, he says that the age of eligibility for Social Security and perhaps Medicare should be raised. He suggests that he would convert Medicare into a system of payments for senior citizens to purchase the health coverage of their choice, which if properly structured could make for a much more competitive health-care market.

Yes, all Conservatives support making Medicaid a block grant to the states, so they can provide even less health care and reimbursements than they do now.  A turning Medicare into private insurance that many seniors will not be able to afford is also part of their agenda.

But in the end they just cannot bring themselves to like the plan

But his plan reads like a second draft. He has chosen to avoid the political liabilities of a flat tax by forgoing its distinctive advantages of simplicity and low compliance costs. The hybrid tax system he would create would in no important sense be flat, and Perry seems unwilling to spell out the cuts necessary to get spending in rough balance with the amount of revenue it would collect. Republicans should try for something better.

Little more is needed in criticism and analysis of the Perry proposal.  When a plan that includes a Balanced Budget Amendment, a Flat Tax Option, Privatization of Medicare and huge tax cuts for the wealthy cannot pass muster with the William F. Buckley Conservatives, everyone knows that there is no substance to it, like Oakland, there is no there there.