If there is one topic that has animated the Republican presidential debates this election cycle, it is the economy. Americans are dissatisfied with the economic policies of the current administration which have failed to alleviate unemployment and stimulate palpable economic growth. Consequently, Republican candidates are proposing alternative solutions to the economic woes the country currently faces. One specific aspect of these solutions concerns tax policy.

FreedomWorks Chairman and former House Majority Leader Dick Armey led the fight for the flat tax on Capitol Hill in the 1990’s. FreedomWorks, previously known as Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE), stood with Armey and his efforts to repeal today’s complicated income tax system. CSE even embarked on a nationwide Scrap the Code tour to generate support for overhauling the tax code. With the rise of the Tea Party movement, the flat tax has a greater chance of passing this time around.

Late Noble Prize winning economist Milton Friedman first proposed a flat tax in 1962. Nearly thirty years later, the idea gained national prominence when FreedomWorks Chairman Dick Armey introduced a flat tax proposal on the House floor. He pledged that a simple flat tax would allow Americans to “file their taxes on a form the size of a postcard.” Unfortunately, the Armey flat tax failed to pass Congress.

Democracy and Power 107:  Counting votes
Successful … politicians are insecure and intimidated men. They advance politically only as they placate, appease, bribe, seduce, bamboozle or otherwise manage to manipulate the demanding and threatening elements in their constituencies. – Walter Lippmann (1889-1974), American Journalist and Author