Posted on 09/26/2011 8:15:07 AM PDT by freespirited
Leave it to a pizza guy to come up with the $9.99 deal. Wait, sorry, that’s the 9-9-9 deal. And former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain has made the proposal the centerpiece of his 2012 campaign for president.
Simply put (wait, sorry again, it is simple), the plan calls for setting the personal income tax, including Social Security and Medicare, at 9 percent for everyone; reducing corporate taxes to 9 percent; and establishing a new national sales tax of 9 percent.
That way, says the self-made millionaire and son of a cleaner mother and janitor father, “everybody gets some skin in the game.”
Now, before we crunch Mr. Cain’s numbers, or check that skin quotient, let’s take a look at the current tax situation.
President Obama wants to target “millionaires and billionaires” (although there are only 235,000 of them - and FYI, that’s a lot less than there were before the junior Illinois senator took office). But here’s the problem with that: The top 1 percent of income earners already pay roughly 40 percent of all federal income taxes - the top 5 percent pay some 70 percent (See The Bible: turnip, blood from a).
Meanwhile, the bottom 50 percent of earners pay just 3 percent. About 47 percent of American households pay no federal income tax at all.
According to the Tax Policy Center, the breakdown works like this: The bottom 20 percent pay -3.8 percent (that’s minus 3.8). That means they actually get money from the federal government. The second 20 percent gets even more - they pay -4.3 percent. Thus, the bottom 40 percent not only pay nothing, they get cash back (your cash).
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
What’s with calling him a pizza guy?
Mr. Cain has infinite more experience than the skidmark that currently occupies the white house.
Hell, we’ve never even seen the skidmark’s record on ANYTHING CUZ HE ***ING HID ALL OF IT.
Anyway, stopped reading after pizza guy...
That’s it. He’s toast. This kind of sanity will never fly.
We are in the mess we are in not because of the leaders we elect but because of the electorate who elects them. People vote their wallets, and those -3.8 people are a huge part of the population.
He’ll be accused of taxing the poor while reducing taxes on the rich. And in a HUGE way.
He’s toast.
The same reason they constantly referred to Governor Palin as a 'mayor of a small town'.
I always liked Herman Cain.
And the more I hear from him, the more I like him.
If he’s our nominee, he’s got my vote.
Herman would have to be dead for years before his IQ would lower to that of the Obamaloon.
This breakdown is the best I’ve seen so far: http://axdwhiteman.info/index.php/home/102-can-herman-cains-999-plan-work
The first official scoring of his plan, shows it would cut unemployment in half as well (don’t have the link off hand but I’ve posted it on FR before)
True, but if he can articulate his reasons enough, I believe enough people will go for it. It’s really up to Cain and how he get’s his message across.
—True, but if he can articulate his reasons enough, I believe enough people will go for it.—
If the internet has the power many hope it does, then yes, he could do it. Unfortunately I believe the MSM still has enough power to spin his ideas to make him look as viable as Ron Paul.
NO! Not while there is an income tax. If we have both they will do nothing but increase. And the new sales tax will be established.
Sorry, too much room for mischief.
I like Cain, but I would oppose a system that installed both an income AND a sales tax. Congress would constantly tinker with both and before you know it we’d have a 20-20-20 plan.
If Obama was the “mayor of a small town”, that town would have garbage piled in the streets, potholes everwhere, and ‘homeless people’ camped in all the parks.
The 9-9-9 plan was arrived at by performing a regression analysis-by taking total tax revenues the government now derives, and working backwards to see how much revenue 9%personal tax would render, how much 9% corporate tax would provide, and then how much would be needed in sales tax to make up the difference. It just happens to come out at 9%.
Cain has explained this in detail in recent interviews. The plan simultaneously eliminates the payroll taxes for both employer and employee (12 1/2 %), and capital gains taxes of 15%.
The bad news of course, is that everyone would be paying 9% federal sales taxes, which in my view would be offset somewhat by some unknown and unquantifiable reduction in the cost of goods and services purchased-by virtue of the reduction in income taxes on all the producers of these goods and services. The elimination of payroll taxes would also put downward pressure on prices. Free lunch? Not quite, but close.
Many of the benefits of a national sales tax would accrue to our exporters under the 9-9-9 plan, meaning that our manufacturing sector would be juiced by the fact that today’s 35% corporate tax is a component of overseas pricing of exported goods. Conversely, foreigners who came here to manufacture, sell, or just visit on vacation would be making contributions to the US treasury they aren’t currently making.
The problems with the plan occur with low wage earners and retirees.
Low-wage earners who “pay no tax” actually do have taxes witheld, it’s just that the withholding is returned to them along with transfer payments at the end of the year. Would these programs still be in place? Would they have to be enhanced to compensate for a net tax increase, considering the 9% sales tax?
For retirees, the elimination of cap gains would be a plus, but being on fixed income they would have to pay more sales taxes. With some this would be a wash, with others, not so much.
With these problems, the plan still eliminates an awful lot of excess baggage, and economic activity would certainly be enhanced, in particular with manufacturing and real estate.
I’m just trying to get my head around this plan, feel free to shoot holes in my analysis. I’m an employer with 18 employees, not an economist or tax expert.
Herman WAS a major FairTax supporter. His 9-9-9 deal is a hell of a lot better than the monstrosity we have now and I would get behind it.
That said, Herman’s plan misses the very real point that ONLY PEOPLE PAY TAXES. Businesses and corporations DO NOT PAY TAXES. THEY COLLECT THEM.
Show me a business that does NOT factor in its tax burden either 1. into the costs of its products or services, 2. reduce their dividend payout to shareholders to cover it or 3. reduce internal costs by cutting payroll, expansion plans, etc. and I’ll show you a serious candidate for bankruptcy.
Unless they’re printing FRAUDS in the basement — a practice called counterfeiting which is frowned upon by government (they hate competition!) — there’s nowhere else for them to get the dough.
It’s that “Congress would constantly tinker” thing that wrecks any plan so far. Income tax was once very simple too, now a monstrosity. I shudder to think what Congress would do with a revenue plan that expands income & corporate taxation to every cash register in the country.
At today’s spending levels, would need to be more like 12 - 12 - 12
As soon as Mr. Cain details the $1.7 to $2.2 trillion in cuts he's prepared to make in next years budget to balance it under his 9-9-9 plan then I'll agree he's serious.
You are absolutely right.
On the ground Cain's 9-9-9-9 plan means an almost 18% bite out of every dollar you make and spend; It takes income tax of 9% right off the top, then hits you with a 9% sales tax on every dollar you spend. But any change that gives congress or another leftist president a new way to screw more money out of taxpayers is dangerous. If there is a way for them to get their grubby paws on more money they will use it.
Cain is a breath of fresh air but I am more interested in hearing what his (and all the candidates) plans are for cutting the size of the federal government and cuttiing spending to acheive a balanced budget that also provides for significant debt reducion.
This should be our top immediate priority - not totally changing the tax system. That can wait until debt is paid down and the strength of the dollar is restored.
Businesses and corporations DO NOT PAY TAXES. THEY COLLECT THEM.That same logic can be applied to every individual who
I don't feel sorry for them. They have more clout and influence with the government than I do.
That's nothing. Wait til they start calling 9-9-9 "the mark of Cain".
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