Rand on a Flat Tax: Leaving More Money in the States Is Good for the Economy

[rush transcript]

REGAN: “First our lead story, presidential candidate Senator Rand Paul says he wants to make life little more simple for us tax-filers and maybe put a few accountants out of the business along the way. In an exclusive interview he tells me, he wants to bust up the 70,000 pages of tax code that we have, all in favor of a simple flat rate for everyone. Fourteen and a half percent. Why 14-and-a-half percent. Why is that the magic number? And is it going to bring in enough cash for us to pay our bills? I asked him.”

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PAUL: “The reason it is 14-and-a-half percent and not 14 or not 15, is that we looked at what kind of tax cut that would generate. We want to argue that a tax cut leaving more money in New Hampshire, leaving more money in Iowa, leaving more money in Kentucky is good for the economy. That is where jobs are created. If you send more money to Washington, that the problem is, actually you have less jobs being created. So we haven't had a Republican candidate in a long time, maybe since Steve Forbes who truly argued for a flat tax and argued that it would create jobs by doing it.”

REGAN: “But you know, Steve Forbes didn't have a lot of success with it?”

PAUL: “I think Steve Forbes was before his time in some ways but he also is still remembered for being for it. He is also looked at as a thoughtful person and he actually looked at our plan. I think it is a good idea. And I think it Steve Forbes would have been governor of New York before he ran that would have helped also. It is harder to run if you haven't already been elected. But I don't think that is any kind of a knock on the idea he presented which was a lower, flat, simpler tax would be good for the economy.”

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