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Senator Rand Paul will reveal his plan to overhaul the tax code on Thursday. Expect Steve Forbes to be pleased.

Mr. Paul, who is hoping his small-government, libertarian-inspired approach to governing will translate into support as he seeks the Republican presidential nomination, will call for a flat tax in the midteens, the senator has told supporters.

That would appear to be an even lower rate than Mr. Forbes proposed in 1996 when he ran for president on a platform of lowering the rate for everyone to 17 percent. Mr. Forbes is now credited with popularizing the term “flat tax” in the country’s campaign vernacular.

Mr. Paul has told supporters that Mr. Forbes has endorsed the plan and will vouch for it in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal.

The flat tax is one way that Mr. Paul is trying to reassure conservatives who are mistrustful of him and his libertarian approach to other issues like foreign policy and criminal justice. And, depending on how it is structured for lower-income Americans, a flat tax could also be a way to broaden his populist appeal. As far as tax cuts are concerned, this is about as big as they come, Mr. Paul has said.

But he has been coy about the exact details so far.

“It will be the largest tax cut in American history,” Mr. Paul writes on his website, “and a tax cut that will leave more money in the paychecks of every worker in America.”