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.
I’ll take 18% over what we are paying now. Add FICA, income tax, etc, and it is a hell of a lot worse.
And what one Congress has done can be undone by simple majority vote by a subsequent Congress. So, even if Congress were to pass a law requiring a super-majority to pass a tax hike, the next Congress could do away with the super-majority requirement by simple majority vote.
The only way to lock a super-majority requirement in place is via constitutional amendment, and that is highly unlikely to ever happen.
***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!**
From an NPR Herman Cain interview:
“Now, the other thing that I plan to do, which I have not talked about yet, is to create empowerment zones. This is an idea of the (unintelligible) that didn’t go very far because of the complexity of the tax code.
One of the other big advantages of my 999 plan is it makes it fairly easy for us to identify empowerment zones, and there again you’re going to be doing something that’s going to hit the black community a lot more than it will the general population.”
Link to NPR interview:
http://www.npr.org/2011/09/14/140463923/herman-cain-talks-jobs-atrocious-poverty-rate
A national sales tax would be an expansion of the existing federal tax system we have right now. We don’t need more taxation options that the liberal-left can twist into more convoluted acts of social engineering and class warfare. The Cain plan opens the door to the basic structure required to install a Value Added Tax, or VAT. The VAT tax system is what the socialists have installed in Europe. A very extreme form of tax policy. A VAT is a form of national sales tax collected at every stage of the economic process culminating with the end user, or the consumer. The liberal-left would have a field day if ever implimented. If Cain’s plan does not stay flat, which is very likely, we’d be staring at a confiscatory income tax and a job destroying Value Added Tax.
I didn’t see “empowerment zones” in the upper left of the second page either, or anywhere else for that matter. - I’d advise everyone to do their own research.
Congress can change any law anytime. Only constitutional amendment is secure
This sounds like both.
“...Telling naysayers to address him directly rather than make calculations of their own.”
Much as I like Mr. Cain — and I do support him — would he have accepted that answer from Clinton when he famously addressed him about the costs of Hillarycare? That he was just supposed to accept *their* calculations? That was the whole point.
Of course, if naysayers are seriously changing the parameters and expecting it to still work, that is another question. But it’s bogus to tell people not to work through the math for themselves and see if it still flies.
I suggest that you actually read Cain's 999 plan from his own web website. Google it under “Herman Cain 999” if you do not believe my link.
Well, they are changing the numbers. For example, I have read several analyses whose calculations don’t remove the taxes that 999 would replace.
"Gets defensive" implies you have something to become defensive about.
The headline would have better written as: Herman Cain Defends his 99 Tax Plan.
While, I like the issue he's addressing, it's silly to become hung up on specifics at this early date.
What happens to our exemptions....like house mortgager, local taxes, medical etc
And anything I buy with my SS money will be taxed by the feds....and the state....and the county?? Terrific!!
RE: What happens to our exemptions....like house mortgager, local taxes, medical etc
GONE. AND IN THEIR PLACE, ONE FIXED 9% TAX YOU CAN FILE IN A POST CARD. The only exemptions allowed will be charity deductions (like before).
One of the businesses he was CEO was not as profitable as they wished. Solution...They shut 50% of them down and put how many "minimum wage" employess out on the street??
“ask Obama fans when the realization hit he was just another politician”
Call Herman Cain’s supporters fans if you like, but in all honesty, you can’t possibly compare a successful man such as Mr. Cain to obama. Cain’s life is an open book with real accomplishments. The worst thing I can find is that he misspeaks occasionally.
It took much more than obama fans to get him where he is, and the truth behind it will continue to be an ongoing nightmare for this country if he’s reelected.
At the very least, he’s a hand-picked, propped-up tool of the left who was thrust into politics by those same leftists and owes his election to professional campaign organizers who used every trick in the evil dem playbook, including plenty of fraud.
All of obama’s so-called great achievements are hidden and apparently will remain hidden. Wonder why. He has nothing to show in his life other than his community organizing / rabble-rousing skills and associations with groups such as ACORN, etc. And he had a lot of extra help through the media in hiding the truth about his shadowy associations with some of the lowest cretin scum in this country.
No comparison at all.
RE: it’s silly to become hung up on specifics at this early date.
I disagree with you here. WE OUGHT TO SCRUTINIZE IT NOW TO SEE IF IT PASSES MUSTER.
We should not be voting for any candidate without looking into whether the plan he proposes is viable or not.
If we don’t do this, we end up being like the moronic Nancy Pelosi ( as one poster above said — “We have to vote for the man to find out what he just proposed”).
One would think that if his plan is evolving it isn't that much trouble to keep his website in sync with his mouth. Or maybe he's just making stuff up as he goes along?
“Is the 9% sales tax on top of state taxes? Yuck! We pay 7% sales tax here in FL.”
But you pay no state income tax in Florida. Your neighbors in Georgia pay a 6% state income tax plus sate and local sales taxes that generally amount to 7%.
Right, but 9-9-9 would be a Federal plan with 9% income tax as well.
Thus, anyone with state income AND sales taxes would be screwed under this plan. However, I have to imagine that states would make changes in quick order.
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