Cain's 9-9-9 Plan for the Rich is DOA

Whoever came up with this plan is rich and wants to get richer is an idea that is taking hold.  This is the problem I have with someone with no Government Executive experience running for President when his last executive experience is 1996.  Cain threw out something that sounds good and then Fox News touts it like it is pure genius.  Then the plan sees the light of day after Fox News made sure Cain was showcased in the Orlando debate and the polls started showing him leading.  That light of day shows the plan hurts the poor and the middle class, but the rich would love this plan as their taxes are cut.

Has Fox News covered how this Cain 9-9-9 plan makes the wealthy richer and hurts the poor and middle class or are they giving him a pass?  Conservatives and liberals are saying the same thing about the plan which means the plan and Cain should be a non-starter because he doesn't seem to have a clue about how Government works.  Most people are shaking their heads that this plan even saw the light of day:

That’s not just the left-wing view. Bruce Bartlett, an adviser in the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations, says that 9-9-9 is unfair to working taxpayers. “It’s the most upside-down tax plan that’s been put forward to tax the poor and the middle class,” he says. “It’s rather insane it’s gotten as much attention as it has. It’s a waste of my time to attack it.” 

What’s more, Bartlett says of what Cain has made public, “there is not nearly enough information on which to do a serious analysis.” The Cain campaign wasn’t answering questions about it on Wednesday. 

You want to know about Herman Cain and the problems he is facing, then read below. Unlike some conservatives who don’t bother to vet candidates, this former journalist did just that after the Cain 9-9-9 plan and his arrogance in interviews surfaced.  It does not look good for Cain in the long run. He may be the Fox flavor of the month. but he has a long way to go to be the candidate.  With his new found arrogance that only he knows the economy, his candidacy when looked at realistically is a non-starter:

Cain’s Primary Problems Continue to Multiplyby ThinkFirst 

Herman Cain, riding high on a single debate/forum performance in a
FoxNews-manipulated event in Florida has only just started to be vetted,
and it is not going well for him. 

Here are a few of the challenges Cain faces with conservatives and
independents: 

1. 9-9-9 creates a whole new Federal sales tax, on top of State and local sales taxes, and it shifts a lot of the tax burden to the poor and middle-class. 

2. He has admitted that he failed to recognize the 2005 housing bubble when many others were actively warning about it. 

3. He endorsed ex-Massachusetts one-term governor Willard “Mitt” Romney in 2008. 

4. He has no elected experience as an executive dealing with the
real-world process of leadership in a system of shared-powers and
competing interests with an often hostile media. (Like Barak Obama.) 

5. He has no foreign policy experience. (Like Barak Obama.) 

6. One of the keys to his success as CEO of a pizza chain was to close 50% of the restaurants, putting many people out of work. (Like Romney at Bain Capital.) Domino’s resolved their corporate challenges without closing half of their stores and putting all of those people out of work. 

7. He will place the Social Security system at-risk as he eliminates the employer-employee split of 15% and replace it with only 9%. 

8. He fails to explain how he is going to get the 16th Constitutional Amendment that authorizes the Federal Income Tax repealed any time in the near-term future (we will, otherwise, face both Income and Sales taxes at the national-level). 

9. Cain assumes that Congress will voluntarily restrict themselves to a 2/3 vote for any changes – this in a defense against those who worry about incremental increases above the 9%. This reveals a dangerous naivete about the realities of the political system in Washington, DC 

10. He also said he will sign no bill over 4-5 pages. This reveals a dangerous naivete about the realities of the political system in
Washington, DC. 

Source: http://nevils-station.com/qp_files/quam-plures/blog5.php/2011/10/12/cain-s-primary-problems-continue-to-multiply

Howard Kurtz, the journalist, who brought us the details on the Fox Orlando debate being a Fox News set-up is back with this article about the Herman Cain 9-9-9 Plan having no chance.  Once again The Daily Beast has the details missing from some of the so-called conservative sites.  How many of these sites that tout themselves as conservative are really part of the establishment.  We are going to be putting together a list so if you have any suggestions on whether a site should be on or off our list, please email me at truesoft.474@gmail.com.

Kurtz has nailed this plan as a non-starter from the left and the right but when will the truth be told on Fox News?

Cain's 9-9-9 Plan Has No ChanceHoward KurtzOct 12, 2011 9:28 PM EDT 

The ex-pizza executive is getting traction on the presidential campaign trail with a national sales tax. But Howard Kurtz reports that the proposal is tilted against the poor and faces opposition in both parties. Plus, Jill Lawrence on Cain's advisers. 

Herman Cain’s much-touted 9-9-9 plan, which is fueling his surge to frontrunner status, is a radical departure that would generate plenty of problems, from slashing federal revenue to making it more expensive for the poor to buy everyday goods. 

That, at least, is what many economists across the spectrum say after studying the sketchy outlines. But not to worry: senior aides in both parties say such a scheme would have 0-0-0 chance of passing Congress. 

The plan, which became a major focus of Tuesday’s GOP debate in New Hampshire, has the appeal of simplicity. “I can explain it in a minute,” Cain told The Daily Beast. “All taxpayers play by the exact same rules. That’s what people love about it.” The question is whether they will be less enamored once they learn some of the details. 

The one-minute explanation: corporate taxes, now close to 40 percent, would be cut to 9 percent. Federal income taxes, now as high as 35 percent, would be cut to 9 percent. And consumers would pay a national sales tax of 9 percent for all products, on top of any state and local levies—bringing the total in New York City, for instance, to 17.875 percent. (It’s not clear whether services would be included.) 

That’s good news if you’re a big company or upper-bracket taxpayer, but not so much if you’re a low-income working stiff. While Cain denies that his plan would be regressive, the working poor tend to spend most or all of their pay, which would be taxed every time they buy something. Michael Ettlinger, a vice president at the liberal Center for American Progress, says the plan would impose “the biggest shift from the wealthy to the middle class in the history of taxation, ever, anywhere.” 

That’s not just the left-wing view. Bruce Bartlett, an adviser in the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations, says that 9-9-9 is unfair to working taxpayers. “It’s the most upside-down tax plan that’s been put forward to tax the poor and the middle class,” he says. “It’s rather insane it’s gotten as much attention as it has. It’s a waste of my time to attack it.” 

What’s more, Bartlett says of what Cain has made public, “there is not nearly enough information on which to do a serious analysis.” The Cain campaign wasn’t answering questions about it on Wednesday. 

Daniel Shaviro, a New York University law professor who specializes in taxation, calls the plan “not viable.” For rich people—defined as those who work for themselves and don’t have to take a salary—it essentially becomes an 18 percent total tax on all money. But for poor people collecting a paycheck, Shaviro says, it amounts to a 27 percent tax. “It’s a disservice to public debate to have people think it’s so simple,” he says. 

Then there’s the question of who is covered. At the moment, just under 50 percent of all those filing returns pay no income taxes, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation. They would be hit with the 9 percent sales tax. 

But that is a plus, in Cain’s view. “Everybody’s going to pay less taxes,” he insisted in a recent interview. “When you’ve got more people paying taxes, everybody’s got some skin in the game. But because the base is bigger, everybody’s net taxes will go down.” 

That expectation seems to rest in part on the logic of the old Laffer curve, the Reagan-era theory that if you cut taxes, you liberate the economy and more money flows into the Treasury. But “there’s not one iota of evidence to show that that works,” says Bartlett, noting that the Bush tax cuts simply blew a bigger hole in the federal deficit. 

Speaking of the deficit, the former pizza executive claims his plan would be revenue-neutral. BusinessWeek estimated that his approach would have brought in $1.96 trillion, based on 2010 figures, compared to $2.16 trillion in actual tax collections; others say the gap would be far wider. 

Getting rid of the payroll tax, as Cain proposes, would undoubtedly be popular. So would blowing up the capital gains tax, especially for those with big holdings in stocks and bonds, and the estate tax, for those with sizable sums to leave to their heirs. And corporations will love that profits earned overseas can be brought back to this country tax-free.   

Excerpt:  Read More at The Daily Beast

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