GEPHARDT'S FLAT TAX: PUNCH LINE TO A JOKE?

Not to be outdone by Republicans striving to simplify or, in some cases, dismantle the tax code, House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt has offered his own version of tax reform: A flat tax that isn't. Flat that is.

The Missouri Democrat's idea would cut the top income-tax rate for three-quarters of taxpayers to 10 percent. Then his flat tax would be a "flat" 20 percent for slightly wealthier Americans. Another income group's flat tax would be a "flat" 26 percent and another's a "flat" 32 percent. Finally, Gephardt's "flat" tax would top out -- flatly, of course -- at 34 percent for the wealthiest Americans.

In proposing the flat tax that isn't, Gephardt chastened Democrats to offer "bold new ideas" that favor working and middle-class people. But the idea of redistributing money from the wealthy to the poor is neither bold nor new. Gephardt's plan would continue to tax income from interest, dividends and capital gains. Proponents of truly flat taxes, though, say one of the best ways to encourage savings and investment is to lower rates for investment.

Instead of bold, new ideas, Gephardt's tax plan raises rates, breeds class warfare, punishes savings and ignores the need to reign in that monster of power and expense known at the Internal Revenue Service.