Ohio Gov. John Kasich said Friday that he’s in discussion with Steve Forbes about proposing a flat tax as part of his expected run for president in 2016.
The Republican White House contender, speaking to reporters during a lunch sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor, said he is specifically reviewing a flat tax proposal long championed by Forbes, a previous GOP presidential candidate and publisher of the business magazine Forbes. Kasich has long been a champion of large tax cuts; he proposed a 10 percent across-the-board reduction during his brief run for president in 2000.
“I’m in conversations now with Steve Forbes about his flat tax — I want to take a look at the distribution table. The beauty of his plan is this: The beauty of his plan is, No. 1, you can have the plan I’m suggesting, which is flat, or you can take the traditional tax. I’ve asked him about the distribution tables, he said they’re pretty good,” Kasich said. “I get a little bit concerned about the issue of dynamic scoring, and I’ve talked to him about, and he’s said: ‘Look John, if we open up the floodgates we think we will have significant growth in the early years and in the later years it returns to me.’ A pretty good answer to me.”
“I’m fascinated by it,” Kasich added, of Forbes’s flat-tax plan. “It’s simpler, it’s flatter — I look at distribution tables — and if you don’t like it, you can keep the current system, which is really appealing to me.”
Kasich, 63 this month and in his second term as governor of the Buckeye State, has partially defined his leadership on being a Republican who looks out for the little guy. Asked Friday how deep tax cuts would benefit the poor, Kasich said it’s all about job creation. Kasich has proposed another tax cut in Ohio, accompanied by a hike in the sales tax. Kasich noted that he implemented the first earned income tax credit in Ohio history.
“We’ve had significant tax relief for those at the bottom, too,” Kasich said. “But here’s what I’m trying to do. In states, in the state, I believe it’s a lot better to reduce the tax on risk-taking and incentive for investment and I think give the people an ability to choose with consumption … We need to get people jobs; the single biggest cure for poverty is a job and that’s what I’m out to do in Ohio.”
Should Kasich run for president on implementing a flat tax, he would join Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas in proposing this style of tax overhaul. Cruz recently told the Washington Examiner in an interview that he is working with his economic team on a flat tax plan that would include abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, and plans to unveil it later this year.
In its purest form, a “flat tax” treats all taxpayers equally. Income is taxed at the same rate regardless of earnings or wealth, while allowing for no tax deductions or exemptions. But Cruz said his flat tax proposal might allow some deductions, possibly for popular write-offs like for charitable donations and mortgage interest charged on a primary residence, paid annually by homeowners.
Kasich did not elaborate on what his flat tax plan might look like, if he adopts one. But if it looks anything like what Forbes has proposed, it could include a 17 percent rate for individuals and corporations with “generous deductions for individuals and families,” according to an op-ed Forbes wrote in March of last year.
