Nein! Nein! Nein! The wild world of Cainonomics

National Review Online ^ | September 29, 2011 | Kevin D. Williamson

[Puddleglum]

That's not a new tax. That's just making everyone pay some portion of the same tax.

tomatoe potatoe - with apologies to Dan Quayle. Tax on folks where there was no tax before. If you support that, we have no argument.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Many costs passed to us come in the form of EPA regulations and lawsuit costs that businesses must comply with and continually fight (including going on bended knee and hat in hand — with a campaign donation — to Capital Hill). To me, these are hidden taxes.

Government must be CUT DOWN and their influence that has worked it’s way into every aspect of our lives, needs to be stopped, blocked and rolled back.

A major shift in our current paradigm must occur and it will take a long time for this to occur.

Turn out in the 2012 election will be paramount. Democratic Party elected officials, at all levels, must be defeated and replaced with conservatives for this process to begin.

For capitalism to survive, the GOP must bring in every voter who agrees that our country is broken, that it has been beaten down and that we need to return to the basics (get rid of these mulit-thousand page bills and codes and rules with untold numbers of ways lawyers and accountants can interpret them).

As we all know, numbers don’t lie, but liars can figure.

[Huck]

Cain's tax plan is idiotic nonsense. It's gimmickry. It's just what you'd expect from a fast-food guy. It should come with a side of garlic bread.

But worse, bringing the idea of a national sales tax into the conversation is dangerous and should be stopped. In short, Cain needs to shut the hell up about it. But of course he won't. Here's hoping his 15 minutes are up quickly.

[RPTMS]

"a 9 percent personal-income tax, a 9 percent corporate-income tax, and a 9 percent federal sales tax, to replace all current federal taxes"

[CPOSharky]

...my English-major math suggests that a 9 percent tax on all of the above produces about $1.7 trillion in revenue, meaning that 2010’s $1.7 trillion deficit would have been more like a $2.2 trillion deficit...

Yo, Kevin, your libtard education doesn't recognize that lower taxes result in higher revenue. It's probably because libtards are trying to make the public think the words "taxes" and "revenue" mean the same thng.

[Tim n Texas]

I would vote for Cain, but I wish he’d get off this 999 trick. It may have good properties, but there are too many unknowns, leaving Cain exposed to the Dems attack. They’ll will have a field day scaring the electorate. We need to focus the electorate on Obama’s record.

[Matchett-PI]

You got it! Rush has been making that point ever since he’s been on the air.

[aruanan]

Cain said that if 10% is good enough for God, then 9% should be good enough for the government. Well, 9% X 3 = 27%. Better he proposed a 3-3-3 scheme: 3% income tax on all income, 3% Social Security tax, and 3% capital gains tax. For those who'd say that it wouldn't provide enough revenue for the federal government, tell them, just wait for a few years. Oh, another part of the tax scheme should be that revenue in excess of expenses pays off the national debt. After that, revenues in excess of expenses are returned to the taxpayers in proportion to their taxes paid.

[SoJoCo]

For those who'd say that it wouldn't provide enough revenue for the federal government, tell them, just wait for a few years.

I'd rather see your revenue figures now rather than wait and see a few years from now. If Cain's 9-9-9 plan will not even come close to covering current federal spending, how will the 3-3-3 plan do so?

[MrB]

That was a chief component of the Fair Tax - it had a constitutional amendment repealing the 16th amendment, in effect, making income taxes unconstitutional,

whose ratification was a pre-requisite for implementing the NRST.

[Future Snake Eater]

If the NRST was a VAT, then you’d be making sense.

[ThirstyMan]

I think PG is right on the principle here. America is at a tipping point where the have and the have-nots are vying for control of the treasury. We are precariously close to losing this balance as evidenced by the last presidential elections. Al Gore won the popular vote!

And we also have a privileged class of tax cheats who find ways to avoid paying. Fairness in taxation needs to return to this Country

[Future Snake Eater]

May I propose a Williamson’s Rule of Politics? Here it is: “Any plan that includes the words ‘educating the American people’ will fail.”

That's just a little pessimistic, don't you think?

[SumProVita]

One of the most important points of this article is the following (which IS true):

“There is no easy way out of this mess.”

I think wise adults understand this. We have decades of unchecked, often ineffective, bureaucratic growth which has insufficient oversight...that needs to be undone. We also have a large segment of the citizenry that is improperly educated with regard to the basic principles of this free nation, does not understand basic economic systems....and has turned its back on God.

We are going to need several good LEADERS in Washington DC who seek God’s help in turning the country around. We need to put a good president in the White House and we need to concentrate on the House and Senate...as well as our local leadership positions.

I still like Perry. I also like Cain. I like the moral principles of Santorum and the knowledge of Gingrich. The contributions of all are going to be necessary.

[Free Vulcan]

He also misses the fact that the profits of overseas companies that we import from are not taxed, we would capture some of that with a sales tax.

[SumProVita]

Husband and I think the FLAT TAX would be best. (Legal barriers can be amended to allow this.)

[aruanan]

I'd rather see your revenue figures now rather than wait and see a few years from now. If Cain's 9-9-9 plan will not even come close to covering current federal spending, how will the 3-3-3 plan do so?

How long did it take for the Reagan tax cuts to start producing a significant increase in federal revenue? There was, after that, a big cut in the capital gains tax that also produced a significant increase in federal revenue. But it didn't happen immediately, though it did happen rather rapidly. You cannot increase federal income in the meantime by increasing tax rates, otherwise, you'll never see the increase in revenue from tax rate reductions.

So the short term way of dealing with things until the revenue stream turns into a torrent is either deficit spending (which is pretty much a dead end now that Obama has pissed so much money away) or serious reduction of spending. The easiest and most immediate "reduction" would simply be to end the baseline budgeting scam that has been, until Obama, the main cause of increased federal expenditure. After that, elimination of duplication between different departments and agencies as well as the elimination of departments and agencies that are not constitutionally mandated. Another way is the elimination of EPA control over the economy and the rest of the regulatory nightmare that has been strangling business. The federal government could also quickly increase revenue from leasing mineral, oil, and gas exploration and development. After all, the United States is one of the richest nations on earth in untapped mineral and energy resources.

[Marie]

I’ll take Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 plan more seriously as soon as he explains what he will cut to eliminate the $1.7 trillion to $2.2 trillion deficit that it will generate.

Actually, cutting the IRS, killing the EPA, killing the DOE, and other cuts are part of his proposal.

His is a solid Tea Partier in that regard.

[Marie]

The final legislation is not determined by the POTUS.

That is a *very* good point.

This is the reason he doesn't believe we can go straight to the Fair Tax. That is going to involve a Constitutional Amendment (to repeal the 16th amendment) and we don't have the public support to go there yet.

I believe that we're also going to need another election cycle (2014) to give us a super-majority in the house and the senate to push through the final, drastic changes and end income tax once and for all

Cain has said, repeatedly, that we have to educate the public on the necessity of this move and estimates that it'll take 2 years, after the implementation of the 999 Plan, to gain the required support. "Once the American people understand it, they'll demand it!"

[eastforker]

And it’s not just the pimps, prostitutes, drug dealers. Many criminal attorneys , service people(plumbers,carpenters,mechanics,yard maintenance,etc) buy and sell for cash hustlers, hair stylist, barbers, waiters and waitresses, illegal gambling houses, never pay income tax. They do have one thing in common. They all use the money they make to live on. Like I said there is a huge underground economy that pays no income tax.