He means there is no tax on used goods.
In no time at all, 80 percent of everything sold will be sold "used" to avoid the tax. Don't think it will happen? Just watch.
Initially I was intrigued by Cain's 9-9-9 tax plan. After carefully studying the plan and his answers--most of them confusing--to questions put to him about it, I have to admit that I am completely unimpressed with it. It's a slapdash tinker toy solution to a formidably complex problem.
I don't think he has really thought it through. First of all, he will not be able to unilaterally impose the plan. That's not his constitutional role as president. He can propose it, but Congress has to be sold on it. And anybody who understands the first thing about Congress knows that Congress will never propose and pass legislation that requires people in lower income brackets to pay effectively a national 18 percent tax on food and other necessities. If Cain doesn't understand this, then he really is not ready for prime time. If he does understand it, then he should admit that its just a gimmick and give us his best fall-back solution.
I don't care for Perry, but he has one important advantage over Cain. he has actually governed a state. And governing a state is nothing like running a pizza business. And if the pizza business model is not like running a state, it is even less helpful in understanding how to run a nation of 50 states filled with innumerable noisy contending interest groups and an impossible fractious Congress that would rather spit in your eye and kick you in the shin than cooperate on passing your ideas for overhauling the tax code.
Cain can still make the sale. He can start by showing that he has more than a superficial understanding of the complex challenges of governing in a republic made up of powerful interest groups intent on preserving their prerogatives and tax benefits and screwing you out of yours.