Rand Paul disparages tax code, calls for flat tax alternative

DAVENPORT – Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul slammed the tax code Saturday during a speech inside Modern Woodmen Park.

His prepared marks, which lasted under 10 minutes, were set aside to propose his 14.5 percent flat tax for businesses and individuals. While many Republican presidential candidates have also suggested a flat tax, the Kentucky senator made certain to distinguish himself from his opponents in the GOP.

"I've decided to go one step further because we live in a democracy, everybody's got a vote and there are more working class people than there are business class people. So what I've done with my plan is get rid of the payroll tax," he said.

This addition, Paul hopes, will silence criticism from Democrats that a flat tax reform is only intended to benefit people with high incomes. To account for the resulting loss of revenue that is brought in by the payroll tax, the Republican presidential candidate suggested allocating money from the business tax instead.

"In some ways, this actually funds the entitlement programs better because the way we fund social security now, social security's six trillion dollars in the hole," Paul asserted.

This allotment, he explained, would only serve to fund social security and Medicare. Beyond those two programs, the senator declared that government spending would have to be dramatically reduced in order to accommodate his simpler, lower tax rate.

"And I think if we passed it, we'd have a boom like we haven't seen in a long time," Paul said.

Following prepared remarks, Sen. Paul took questions from the audience, addressing topics such as abolishing the Federal Reserve, education reform and ethanol production.

SETTING: A reception room inside Modern Woodman Park baseball stadium, home of the Quad Cities River Bandits.

CROWD: About 70 people.

REACTION: The attentive crowd was receptive of the senator's remarks, though there was no overwhelming response during his brief, tax-centric speech.

WHAT'S NEXT: This was the last stop of his two-day Iowa tour.