Posted on 10/12/2011 6:50:02 PM PDT by justsaynomore
As businessman Herman Cain surges atop state and national polls and becomes a top-tier presidential contender, his signature "9-9-9" plan, which calls for a nine percent tax on income, a nine percent national sales tax, and a nine percent corporate income tax, has come under scrutiny from the right and the left.
Famed supply-side economist Art Laffer told HUMAN EVENTS that Cain's "9-9-9" plan was a pro-growth plan that would create the proper conditions for America's economy to grow and thrive again.
"Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 plan would be a vast improvement over the current tax system and a boon to the U.S. economy," Laffer told HUMAN EVENTS in a statement. "The goal of supply-side tax reform is always a broadening of the tax base and lowering of marginal tax rates."
Added Laffer: "Mr. Cain’s plan is simple, transparent, neutral with respect to capital and labor, and savings and consumption, and also greatly decreases the hidden costs of tax compliance. There is no doubt that economic growth would surge upon implementation of 9-9-9."
Laffer also said that "such a system provides the least avenues to avoid paying taxes, yet also maintains the strongest incentives for work effort, production, and investment."
At the GOP presidential debate in New Hampshire on Tuesday, Cain's plan received criticism from many of the candidates on stage.
Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman said that Americans needed a plan that was "doable-doable-doable" when asked his opinion on Cain's "9-9-9" plan.
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R.-Minn.) said that the "9-9-9" plan was not "a jobs plan," but was rather "a tax plan." Bachmann also complained of Congress getting another revenue stream from the plan and said, "you turn the 9-9-9 plan upside down, and the devil's in the details."
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum said that the "9-9-9" plan was not a passable solution.
Further, Cain has been criticized from the left as well, as charges that his "9-9-9" plan is regressive have been made, charges that Cain has often refuted by citing that the payroll tax would be eliminated under his plan and used goods would not be levied sales taxes.
As Cain's profile increases and poll numbers rise, his opponents will attack him more fiercely over his "9-9-9" plan, but it looks like Cain has found an ally in Laffer, an economist who is more than respected by fiscal, pro-growth conservatives.
If anyone wants to see some numbers broken down - someone at Redstate posted this:
http://www.redstate.com/apocomilitiaman/2011/10/12/rough-math-of-the-999-plan/
I can’t provide a link from here. Just google “the law that never was.”
The “they’ll just raise it” argument against the 9-9-9 plan is a non-starter. You can say the same thing of any tax. My biggest problem with the plan is the federal sales tax— digging deep into the main revenue source of state and local governments. It’ll kill off that revenue.
I still like Cain. The 9-9-9 plan doesn’t have a prayer of passing Congress, so I can still safely support him if I need to.
The 9-9-9 tax plan is a political disaster. It imposes an mandatory federal 9% tax n individual income without any deduction on almost 50% of the people who pay no federal income tax after they file for all the deductions under the current tax system. Moreover and worst of all the 9% national sales tax is on everything including basic items such as food and cloth because there is no way that his disaster 9-9-9 tax plan can raise revenues similar to what we are getting now unless the 9% sales tax is on every item we purchase.
C’mon, guys, that’s a bit silly. You could just write it into a constitutional amendment.
And as one of the other commenters noted, it’s different than current law how?
| Avg Wage | FICA | avg Income Tax | Necessities | Nat Sales Tax | State Tax GA | Leftover |
|
40,711.61
|
2524.12 | 5455.35574 | 26840.35 | 0 | 2442.6966 | 3,449.09 |
| vs 999 | ||||||
|
40,711.61
|
0 | 3664.0449 | 26840.35 | 2415.6315 | 2442.6966 | 5,348.89 |
| Avg Wage | ||||||
| 100000 | 6200 | 13400 | 48000 | 0 | 6000 | 26,400.00 |
| vs 999 | ||||||
| 100000 | 0 | 9000 | 48000 | 4320 | 6000 | 32,680.00 |
| Avg Wage | ||||||
| 250000 | 15500 | 33500 | 48000 | 0 | 15000 | 138,000.00 |
| vs 999 | ||||||
| 250000 | 0 | 22500 | 48000 | 4320 | 15000 | 160,180.00 |
I haven’t made up my mind about 9-9-9, but I don’t see anything that keeps our current rates from going up either.
____________________________________________________________
I keep seeing people post this stupidity, here’s a clue:
The thing keeping them from raising the national sales tax rate right now is:
THERE IS NO NATIONAL SALES TAX!!!!!!
Put that tax on services as well, since this is supposed to be “Service Economy”. That means everything from lawyers fees and stock transactions to tanning salons and dog grooming boutiques. Maybe it would go down to 6-6-6. :-)
Cain is starting to look like a Perot-clone v.2011.
Cain's 999 tax plan is nothing more than a gimmick. It expands the federal tax system by adding a national sales tax to the mix. Conservatives don't want more tax options that liberals could use as a tool of social engineering and class warfare. No thanks.
bump to the title, y’all.
Totally specious argument. He reduces 6 taxes to three. Tell me, what now prevents the jackasses in DC from raising the payroll tax to 25%, the Cap gains to 30%, the income tax brackets by 50%, and communications excise tax to 20%, Medicare to 15%, and the corporate rate to 41.95%?
Congress can increase taxes now. The 47% who do not pay income taxes in the current system gleefully vote in tax-and-spend congressmen.
Under 9-9-9, taxes are less likely to increase for several reasons. The main obstacle to raising the 9-9-9 levels, in my opinion, is that the 47% might like YOUR taxes getting raised, but they will not support politicians who increase taxes on THEM.
RE: It expands the federal tax system by adding a national sales tax to the mix. Conservatives don’t want more tax options that liberals could use as a tool of social engineering and class warfare. No thanks.
Remember one thing — IT ABOLISHED AND THROWS AWAY THE ENTIRE CURRENT TAX CODE WITH ITS TENS OF THOUSANDS OF CONVOLUTED PAGES.
If you’re concerned about social engineering and loopholes to favor one lifestyle or one form of business over another, we already have it.
Red Herring. There's nothing preventing Congress from raising taxes now.
I believe he intends to have the law passed with a requirement that 2/3 of the Senate must approve any increase. Besides can you imagine the oucry of any increase in the 9 9 9 plan because inherently the plan requires everyones skin in the game... no longer can folks sit on the sidelines and approve of increased taxation in a system that they don’t pay income taxes on in the first place.
Don’t forget how littered the current code is with Welfare to the bottom 20 percent.
“Art, how do you prevent the 9-9-9 from turning into 27-27-27?”
God I’m sick of this straw argument.
How do you prevent the current income tax from being raised?
The 9-9-9 plan has two advantages over the current tax code when it comes to raising taxes:
1) It has a built in 2/3 vote to raise it.
2) It’s plainly visible. The current tax code let’s politicians bury their hikes in mountains of exemptions, rebates, and crap. 9-9-9 is so straightforward that it will be plain to everyone when the dems are trying to raise taxes.
Which she is right about.
The 666 joke was a cheap shot that made me loose a lot of respect for Congresswoman Bachmann. I like her a lot and have conributed to her campaigns, but this joke is telling. She is getting frustrated and a bit desperate and reaching too much for the evangelical voters. She is off my short list.
You’re right: there is no national sales tax. Directly.
Instead we have a 35% corporate tax rate which gets built into the price of every product we buy, plus tax code compliance costs which also get built in.
The current system is a HIDDEN sales tax.
That's your job, my friend.
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