WALLACE: One of the pillars of your economic program is a flat tax. How would that work?
CARSON: Well, I like the idea of a proportional tax. That way you pay according to your ability. And I got that idea, quite frankly, from the Bible, tithing. You make $10 billion a year, you pay $1 billion. You make $10 a year, you pay $1. You get the same rights. That's pretty darn fair, if you ask me.
Now, some people say it's not fair because, you know, the poor people can't afford to pay that dollar. That's very condescending. You know, I grew up very poor. I experienced every economic level. And I can tell you poor people have pride, too. And they don't want to be just taken care of.
And also, if everybody is paying, it makes it very difficult for these politicians to come along and raise taxes. It's easy to raise it on 1 percent or 2 percent or 5 percent. It's very difficult to raise it on 100 percent.
WALLACE: But, Doctor, here is a problem with flat tax in the real world -- according to the Tax Policy Center, to raise the same amount of revenue we do now, the tax rate would have to be in the low to mid 20 percent range.
CARSON: Wrong.
WALLACE: Low and middle income families would get a big tax hike, while wealthy families would actually get a tax cut.
CARSON: That's actually not -- I don't agree with that assessment, let me put it that way, because I've been in contact with many economists. And, in fact, if you eliminate loopholes and deductions, then you're really talking about a rate somewhere between 10 percent and 15 percent.
WALLACE: I got to tell you, the outside experts we talk to say you're talking -- in the 20s.
CARSON: Let's have a battle of the experts.
WALLACE: Well, we'll have a battle of the experts -- I mean, that's right. But, for instance, you talk about low income families. Not only don't they pay, they actually get an earned income tax credit. Now, you're going to have them pay 10 percent to 15 percent of income they have, or 20 percent if my experts are right.
CARSON: Well, Chris --
WALLACE: I mean, is there danger -- I got to tell you, a lot of independent study say the people that make out like bandits in this are the wealthy.
CARSON: Bear in mind, Chris, this is part of an overall complex program, because it also involves reorienting the way we do things in government, making the government run more like a business in this great, inefficient behemoth that we have now. It involves, you know, utilizing our energy resources. We can get an enormous amount of revenue from that. It involves a balance budget.
You know, by the time you put all those things, and it involves getting rid of all of these things that are fettering, the economic engine and revamping corporate taxes and bringing in money that's overseas, by giving a tax holiday, that's $2 trillion right there. I mean, there are a number of things involved in doing this.
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