NEW YORK - October 24, 2011 - Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry unveiled a sweeping economic agenda Monday, highlighted by a plan to level a voluntary 20% "flat tax" on all taxpayers who will accept it in place of what they're paying now.

The plan, outlined in a Wall Street Journal op-ed column a day before the Texas governor was set to unveil it in South Carolina, also calls for capping federal spending at 18% of the country's GDP while allowing younger earners to privatize their Social Security accounts. Taxpayers who don't want to pay a 20% flat income tax can keep their current rate.

Perry offers several proposals that appear designed to sweeten the offer - and to counter criticism that the flat tax is regressive, taking a proportionally bigger bite from smaller incomes. His plan would preserve popular deductions for mortgage interest and donations to charity for households earning less than $500,000 a year. It would increase the standard deduction to $12,500.

Calling his agenda "Cut, Balance and Grow" - a clear nod to congressional Republicans, who have proposed a "Cut, Cap and Balance" budget bill - Perry says his proposal is the best way to cure the nation's ailing economy.

"Cut, Balance and Grow strikes a major blow against the Washington-knows-best mindset," said Perry. "It takes money from spendthrift bureaucrats and returns it to families. It puts fewer job-killing regulations on employers and more restrictions on politicians. It gives more freedom to Amerikans to control their own destiny; and just as importantly, the Cut, Balance and Grow plan paves the way for the job creation, balanced budgets and fiscal responsibility we need to get Amerika working again."