Posted on 10/10/2011 6:46:18 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
WASHINGTON – Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain defended his 999 tax plan against growing criticism Friday at the Values Voter Summit, telling naysayers to address him directly rather than make calculations of their own.
Cain said his 999 plan – 9 percent corporate tax, 9 percent personal income tax and 9 percent national sales tax – is a "bold" solution to the nation's weak economy and those who didn't agree had likely tampered with the plan's formula.
He stressed the plan is revenue neutral and would generate more income as businesses grow. It will also save the nation $430 billion dollars, he asserted.
However, many question whether the 999 plan will generate revenue comparable to the current tax code.
The Washington Times tested the plan in a September editorial using personal income figures generated by the University of New Mexico's Bureau of Business and Economic Research and retail figures compiled by the U.S. Census. The publication was able to generate $1.1 trillion a year in personal income taxes and $380 billion in retail taxes using the 999 tax model. Combining those figures with the Times' estimate that a 9 percent corporate income tax rate would generate $270 billion, it guessed that the 999 plan would raise $1.8 trillion. The government currently takes in $2.16 trillion in taxes, according to Politifact.
He told supporters at the Value Voter Summit, "When you see reports talking about [Cain's tax plan] won't do this and won't do they have changed the assumptions."
Cain's spokesman J.D. Gordon assured that Cain's plan has been vetted by a number of advisers.
"Mr. Cain's idea was the 999 – the name, the concept, the idea – and he worked with Rich (Lowery, his economic advisor) to get it done [and] put the policy on paper. Then there's an economic advisory council that they have," Gordon told The Christian Post.
But media reports describe Lowery as a wealth manager and not an economist.
Gordon remained tight lipped about the members of Cain's council and informal economic network except to say they are, "very well-known political experts, economic experts and foreign policy experts that advise him privately." He said the group also includes a former ambassador to the United Nations.
When asked why he would not reveal that names of those mystery advisers, he cited a variety of reasons including, "they don't want to declare a candidate until the race is decided."
However, the Cain campaign remains sure of the plan's effectiveness.
"He had [the 999 plan] scored and the estimate from the scoring is that it would create 6 million jobs because the whole concept is that corporations could grow," said Gordon.
Cain emphasized that plan is meant to give businesses certainty and foster an environment ideal for job creation and economic growth.
Still, critics of Cain's plan are also critical of the plan's national sales taxes. There is currently no national sales tax. States do, however, charge local sales taxes.
Rachelle Bernstein, a vice president and tax counsel at lobbyist group National Retail Federation, said "An additional tax on consumer spending will negatively impact that already weak demand."
Gordon responded that consumers will be cushioned by the reduction in the personal income tax.
However, he did not answer questions regarding why Cain would create a new federal tax at a time when GOP party leaders are bent on cutting taxes and government regulation.
| Year | $10,001 | $20,001 | $60,001 | $100,001 | $250,001 | $500,001 | $1,000,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1913 | 1% | 2% | 3% | 5% | 6% | 7% | 7% |
| 1914 | 1% | 2% | 3% | 5% | 6% | 7% | 7% |
| 1916 | 2% | 3% | 5% | 7% | 10% | 12% | 13% |
| 1918 | 16% | 21% | 41% | 64% | 72% | 76% | 77% |
| 1920 | 12% | 17% | 37% | 60% | 68% | 72% | 73% |
Never let a good crisis go to waste. If you don't have one, create one.
God only wants 10%. Cain wants 18% - 9% when you earn it and 9% when you spend it.
People didn't want to scrutinize Obama. They wanted so much to like him that they were afraid if they looked too deeply, they'd find stuff about him they didn't like. So they didn't look.
People are doing the same thing with Cain. With no record behind him, nobody really knows what his positions are. Cain gives great speeches, throws a lot of red meat to the base and that's good enough those who want simply to like Cain and not look too deeply into what he's advocating.
What are you talking about “empowerment zones”?? I went to the link and saw no “empowerment zones” in the upper right of the second page!
Just because Cain has no previous political experience doesn't mean he isn't in it for his own political ambitions. Assigning higher motivations to a politician is what causes disappointment. Just ask Obama fans when the realization hit he was just another politician.
Social engineering, like “Empowerment Zones,” are precisely the way that the current tax code has become so messed up. If we are going to revise the tax code to make it more fair, then all of the social engineering and other loopholes should be eliminated, not just some of them.
RE: Not to worry. Once Congress gets their hands on it (assuming it is ever approved — which I doubt it will ever be), they will modify and add to it until it becomes 10-10-10 or 20-50-90 or some other unrecognizeable creature
_____________
I wrote this before and I’ll write it again...
First of all, if the base assumption is that no matter how great an idea might be, DC politicians will find a way to corrupt it… why is the 999 plan singled out for special treatment? What makes anyone think that Romney’s 87-page PDF Economic Plan won’t also be instantly corrupted and changed? Or any tax plan that even attempts to reform anything.
Superior how, if the assumption is that Congresscritters will instantly transform it into a basket of giveaways and boondoggles? Or even a Flat Tax?
So, If the starting point of evaluating any policy proposal or plan is that Congress will get in there and mess it up, I honestly don’t see any reason to support any candidate on the basis of any issue. Because we’d have to assume that his/her great idea would just be transformed into a steaming pile of dung by Congress.
Which Leads To… Vigilance of the People...
One particularly amazing critique of the 999 Plan theorized that we’d have President Cain coupled to a Democrat Congress, which would then result in the 999 plan becoming the 90-90-90 plan out of the gate, or in your case, 10-10-10 or 20-50-90 or some other unrecognizeable creature.
I’ve read variations of these combinations of numbers.
C’mon people; are we seriously contemplating that we’d all go to work trying to get the GOP nominee elected President, but skip out on all of the other races such that we’d end up with a GOP President and a Dem Congress?
The larger point — one which I’ve raised — is that the only way that the 999 plan (or any other plan on any other issue) is not transmogrified into some atrocity is the vigilance of the electorate. There is simply no way to trust a politician — no matter whom, no matter what — to do the right thing time and again. Absolute the only way we as a nation can defend our rights, get the policies we want, and prevent corruption by politicians is to be vigilant against such things and to keep up the pressure on all of them to do the right thing.
I’ve always thought that the Tea Party movement was a Great Awakening of sorts that signified that at least a very large part of the population had turned the corner on the vigilance issue. People who had never paid attention to politics suddenly became activists. Folks who had tuned out the Clinton years, the Bush years, even the Reagan and Carter years suddenly educated themselves on the issues, took to the streets, organized, and started to make their desires known.
The critique of 999 plan on “implementation” grounds simply assumes that these people — you and me — would work our tails off to win the election in 2012, and then go back to sleep. “Whew, we got Cain/Perry/Romney/Whomever into the White House! Our job is done here.
If that’s true, then we’re all wasting our time.
ETERNAL VIGILANCE IS THE PRICE OF FREEDOM.
And your point is?
I pay 30% in federal taxes plus a 10% local / state sales tax, which means I pay a total of 40% on what I spend of my earnings not counting state taxes and other useage taxes.
28% total tax (9% fed tax, 9% fed sales tax, 10% local / state) would be a significant reduction.
People are failing to take into consideration that the other federal taxes GO AWAY under this proposal. It shifts tax burden from suppliers to consumers - the way it ought to be, and it ensures that everyone has skin in the game (not just the 51% of us who pay taxes currently).
It’s better that it be challenged hard now rather than later. Obama and the Dems will attack it BRUTALLY if Cain should win the nomination. He has to learn how to defend it if he’s going to continue to run on it.
How could anyone ‘tamper with his formula’ when he hasn't put one out there? All anyone has to go on is what he put out there, and that isn't much.
What he put down would tax SS benefits at 9%, just as everything else as income.
The only deduction from income is donations to charity and the ghetto tax breaks, which he fails totally to explain.
+1 - well stated.
Cain’s 999 plan from his web site: http://www.hermancain.com/images/economicgrowth.pdf
What the heck are those “Empowerment Zones” shown on the upper left of the second page?
If that is another way to redistribute income, or to treat one class of the unemployed more favorably than another, I want no part of it.
Social engineering like this is precisely the way the current tax code has become so unwieldy and unfair.
Not if
a) the prices of the products are lower due to no need for compliance of the current behemoth tax system
b) more people have jobs (and, therefore money) due to increased economic activity
c) those people have more disposable take-home income.
RE: Not according to his website. It says nothing about a super majority required to raise the rates.
cain has been interviewed several times and he DID say that it would require 2/3 of Congress to increase the tax rate.
But even if he did not, what law in the universe says that he can’t include it in his plan when the people DEMANDS it?
As Herman Cain said in his Iowa speech, he is open to suggestions and improvements with his plan.
But you are paying much less income tax, less capital gains tax, no payroll taxes, etc. Every tax payer will have more money in their pocket.
I am not sold on this approach, but picking just one area and ignoring the rest does not take into account the economic impact. Getting a low flat corporate and personal income tax is a wonder thing, in my opinion, and will do wonders to our economy. My issue is introducing a sales tax w/o eliminating the income tax amendment in the constitution. The counter argument is that rates are not as easily changes when every single person is effect, and that is a valid argument. The class warfare efforts to ‘jack the rich’ go away in a real flat tax situation.
I can certainly agree that social engineering intertwined with tax policy/codes make for bad economics and bad business. Actually, you really make a larger point that simple plans, whether they are named 9-9-9 or FairTax or whatever, have a larger hill to climb in rooting out the pernicious vines of bad tax policy folded into every corner of federal law.
RE: It’s better that it be challenged hard now rather than later
I agree, and more importantly, Herman Cain WELCOMES the challenge.
Why do you think I’ve been posting several threads on 9-9-9? PRECISELY for both skeptics and defenders to have a go at it.
The tendancy will be to scrutinize him more since he has no government experience (i.e. whether his corporate ideas can translate to government). A governor would be scrutinized less because everyone assumes a governor knows how to balance a budget, and one can look at his State’s relative success.
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