I’ve seen your post and several others citing a 9% tax on food and medicine. Although I agree that such a thing might be problematic I also have read the Cain plan as saying, and I quote, “This gets the Fair Tax off the sidelines and into the game”.
The way that the Fair Tax works is that there is a “prebate” which functions to offset the tax on certain staples. If the 9% tax is implemented in this fashion then the discussion of tax on food and medicine is moot.
One issue with the 9% is the election. If Obama can show that 999 will cost middle and lower class families more, then he will have an advantage.
The way to blunt that advantage is to exempt food NOW from the 9% sales tax. While the prebate takes care of all that if we ever get a system with only an nrst, for now care should be taken with voters in the election.