Rick Perry's tax proposal would
undermine traditional marriage and favor gay families, social
conservative Phyllis Schlafly claims.
The 87-year-old Schlafly is the founder
of the Eagle Forum, a group formed in opposition to the proposed
Equal Rights Amendment. She is also the author of numerous books.
In an op-ed titled Rick Perry's
Marriage Problems published at Creators.com,
Schlafly hits at Perry's tax reform plan and suggests he favors gay
marriage.
“Does Rick Perry want to undermine
traditional marriage?” Schlafly writes. “This question leaps out
from his new 20 percent flat-tax plan, which would eliminate all tax
advantages for married couples where one spouse is the primary
breadwinner.”
“If an income tax were truly 'flat,'
filing status wouldn't matter because a wife is taxed at the same
rate as her husband. But Perry's so-called flat tax isn't anywhere
near flat, so it matters greatly that he offers the same standard
allowances for alternative lifestyles as for married couples.”
Such a tax system would mean “rewarding
bad behavior.”
Perry's tax proposal, Schlafly argues,
should be viewed with skepticism because he's “been on probation
with pro-family voters since July when he told an elite group of
big-money donors in Aspen that he was 'fine' with gay marriage in New
York because 'that's their business.'”
(Related: Rick
Perry lauds effort to repeal gay marriage in New Hampshire.)