Sure, I got a plan, but I'll show it to y'all later!
Since Cain has offered no tax caculator site to refute this kind of analyses of his tax plan, the media gets to define and caculate it for him.
Although simplifying the tax code is an important part of ending government corruption via buying loopholes, it will be protrayed as a tax increase on the middle class at a time when the middle class is suffering under the weight of this economy. It also is slammed for introducing a new consumption tax that we all know would not stay stagnant at 9%.
The 999 plan is a very weak campaign centerpiece when it comes to the general election.
Read Cain’s Lips: ALL NEW TAXES!
It would be a better plan if it exempted tax on food.
I already see the flaw in that scenario - they do not account for the payroll taxes being eliminated.
A family of 4 making under $50,000 is likely getting a bunch of free government stuff.....this article does NOT analyze all this very well.
Sure, I got a plan, but I'll show it to y'all later!
999 has no chance of passing. 999 won’t even get out of committee.
It has problems because Herman Cain probably thought it up while he was on the treadmill.
But it’s a starting point. You want a Flat Tax? A Fair Tax? Electing Herman Cain is the best chance you’re ever going to get to throw out the current tax code and implement a more sensible system.
home mortgage interest deduction gone
child tax credit gone
business expense deductions gone
and I don't even pay payroll taxes because I am self employed, I would be totally screwed under 999.
As a small time retailer, I would like to know what it would mean to me and my biz. Would I have to start charging my customers 16% tax on everything? (state + new fed.) Does the state tax go away or what?
I too am concerned about this 999 stuff which to the average Joe, is interpreted as a tax increase. A delivery truck guy told me yesterday that he doesn’t want to pay an additional 9% tax on his purchases.
Love Cain..see my tagline. But he really doesn’t need to ID himself so closely with this plan and keep repeating how much he believes in it. He can sell himself on who he is without it.
agreed- if he’s just going to sit back and take it rather than fight back with real numbers he’s just another GOPer that fights like a little girl...and he does not seem anything like that at all...
my MIL is on SS, she is old, she cannot afford half of her meds, and can only buy enough food for two meals a day.
She has no car, no luxuries like eating a chocolate bar, she cries her eyes out when she can’t give her grandkids a present at Christmas and birthdays.
Now she will have a 9% tax on her.
Aye that is not going to go well in the election and the left are going to crucify him for this and what is to stop the left raising this 999 to 30, 30 , 30 in the future.
Cain is better than Romney by far but he better get this tax plan sorted out than just saying 9,9,9
That plan will not go to well with people down here in FL and the older poorer folks in the south
We know how the left will swing this
the rich see their taxes go down by over half while those living on SS and have no money left over and have no nothing to enjoy but live like hermits now see an increase in their food, medication, clothing bill.
The purpose is to stimulate economic growth and make us more competitive wrt to jobs by shifting to consumption taxes, not more Bush/Obama popular give-a-ways. Those were how we ended up with half the country paying no Federal taxes (except entitlement ones) and more and more of them losing their jobs and supporting more handouts.
Heck, the specifics of Obama’s Christmas gift ‘Jobs bill’ all poll well. But they wont make the voters happy when they lose their jobs anymore than they were happy with Bush in 2008.
“It’s going to raise the price of just about everything by about 9 percent,” said former George W. Bush economic policy adviser Bruce Bartlett. “We know from experience and analysis that that tends to hurt people with low incomes.”
Alright. And wouldn’t prices drop with the concurrent drop of corporate taxes, offsetting the 9% sales tax by a LOT?
Yes. Yes they would. It is NOT a zero sum game.
If you don’t believe that prices will drop as the corporations have the heat taken off of them, then you don’t believe in supply-side economics, the free market and the laws of supply and demand.
In other words - you are NOT a conservative.
How ‘bout the rest of Cain’s plan? Deregulating the energy sector. Opening up our natural resources?
How would $1.50 (or less) for a gallon of gas effect the working class and the working poor?
How about LESS FREAKIN’ POOR PEOPLE? More jobs means more working people and less people worrying about the 9% sales tax.
How about retirees doing MUCH better as corporations thrive and their investments begin to take off? How about the huge number of Boomers who want to retire and can’t because they’ve take such a bath in the stock market over the last five years? I’ll bet they’ll be happy with corporate profits.
You are being taxed this much now in the form of hidden taxes. 999 is revenue neutral, people.
Every time people scream about the 9% sales tax, the more I’m convinced that such an obvious tax would hold itself in check against increases over the years.
Not so with the hidden corporate taxes. We pay it every time we buy anything, but we don’t bawl and cry about it because it’s not *obvious* to us.
What about:
- the payroll tax employers would no longer pay?
- the hundreds of billions in accounting and tax expenses employers and individuals avoid complying with the current tax code?
- the millions of man-hours employers and individuals avoid complying with the current tax code?
- the millions of Americans not paying any taxes now, if not getting a "credit," that would start having some skin in the game?
- the capital gains potential no longer taxed?
- the market boom that would increase everyone's 401(k) value?
- the investment boom in America that could allow this $50K individual to find a higher paying job?
Scrapping the tax code and starting over is a great idea! Whether the start of the new code results in 9-9-9 depends on how long it takes to implement, whether it really is revenue neutral compared to the current system, and how many exceptions result in the simplified new system.
The Democrats love the idea of a national sales tax, just add it to the current tax code to give the Obama administration more dollars to waste.
Agreed. I personally would like to see the 16th Amendment repealed and the US Government go back to tariffs and a national sales tax. Since that will never happen in my lifetime, I would settle for a flat rate income tax on all US citizens and corporations. Eventually, we need to shift away from Social Security and Medicare to tax exempted individual savings plans. But, I am dreaming on that one too. Who am I kidding — this won’t happen until the U.S. can’t borrow or print money anymore.
Herman Cain needs to lay out the details of his 999 plan or start backing away from it.
I believe 999 eliminates charitable contributions as a deduction. That is probably a killer among conservatives who generally give much more to charitable organizations than do the liberals.
9-9-9 is not an end, but a beginning to the conversation.
This static analysis does not take into account that with a reduction in taxes, comes a reduction in the cost of goods and services and a more than likely increase in economic production. The family of 4 making $50K would probably end up earning more (and keeping more of it) in the long run.
I think their math is wrong. How are they getting $2,000 a child? IRS states up to $1000 per child.