Newt Gingrich has proposed creating a flat tax plan which is designed specifically to give huge tax cuts to the richest of Americans.  Here is a chart that shows the distribution of tax burden that would result from the plan.

This is the exact OPPOSITE of what should be done.  Such a tax structure would result in increased concentrations of wealth into fewer hands, which would accelerate the decline of American capitalism.  The economic structure of capitalism works best when wealth is distributed, so that individuals in the market are acting from relatively equal strengths, and competition can be real.  When the economic structure becomes unbalanced, with extreme wealth and a diminishing middle class, the entire system collapses.

Rather than consider any kind of "flat tax" that benefits the rich and hurts the middle class, we should be returning to a highly progressive income tax structure, such as we had during the 1940s to 1970s.