Personally I think it's because Cain is making this stuff up as he goes along. I watched a clip of him vs. Chuck Todd, which I guess was on MSNBC yesterday some time, and Cain was all over be board. He claimed everyone pays a 15% payroll tax, which is not true. He claimed a family of 4 making $50000 and taking standard deductions pays $10,000 in income tax, which is flat out wrong. He admitted that there was no way that they could definitively say that prices would go down just because business taxes were reduced, which he has claimed in the past and which he contradicted himself on less than a minute later. He said that business would be able to deduct purchases and capital investment - but only if they are made or invested with companies here in the U.S., which is something new right out of the blue. How can anyone accurately predict what the effects of his plan is on the average person if he's changing it every time you turn around?
“How can anyone accurately predict what the effects of his plan is on the average person if he’s changing it every time you turn around?”
As Romney said in the Tuesday debate, and as everyone if figuring out that is reading this thread, a simple plan doesn’t necessarily have simple answers. It’s much more complicated, and needs more thorough explanation, like Romney’s 59 point plan attempted to do. So everyone cheers Cain’s simplicity, until they find out it ain’t so simple.
>>He claimed everyone pays a 15% payroll tax, which is not true.
It’s true for those making under $100,000, because the distinction between the employee’s portion and the employer’s portion is an accounting irrelevancy.
>>He claimed a family of 4 making $50000 and taking standard deductions pays $10,000 in income tax, which is flat out wrong.
$3800 income tax, $7500 payroll tax.
>>He admitted that there was no way that they could definitively say that prices would go down just because business taxes were reduced, which he has claimed in the past and which he contradicted himself on less than a minute later.
Sounds like he’s being honest, acknowledging that there are no guarantees for every instance, but sticking to the economic principle that lowering business costs generally lowers prices. That might not be the case where there is a monopoly, like a patent.
>>He said that business would be able to deduct purchases and capital investment - but only if they are made or invested with companies here in the U.S., which is something new right out of the blue. How can anyone accurately predict what the effects of his plan is on the average person if he’s changing it every time you turn around?
Be patient. President Cain will need to provide the leadership as Congress drafts the details.