America was fooled by hype once. America should not get fooled by hype again.
The man that actually "put forth" the idea was a man that Cain knew with a B.S. in Accounting, Rich Lowrie. Cain just told him to come up with something "Bold".
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From fan to The Man: How Cleveland's Rich Lowrie claimed a place in Herman Cain's inner circle
That's how Lowrie found himself this summer on a New Hampshire-bound flight with Cain, sketching the tax-reform plan that in recent weeks has become a household name and helped Cain surge to the head of the Republican field.
"I had one question for him," Lowrie said of the chat. "How bold do you want to be?"
Cain, "with his signature smile and booming voice," leaned in and replied: "Bold."
And so, "9-9-9" was born -- a proposal to replace the federal tax code with a flat 9 percent tax on personal income and businesses and a 9 percent national sales tax.
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What is amusing is that after Cain asked Lowrie to do that in the Summer of 2010, Cain wrote an article in November of 2010 where he described a National Sales Tax as follows:
“The worst idea is a proposed national sales tax, which is a disguised VAT” because it would be “one more tool to lie, deceive, manipulate and destroy this country”. Cain then pointed out in the article, “In every country that has established a VAT with the promise of reducing their national debt, the VAT has eventually gone up or expanded on top of the existing tax structure. .... For the liberal naysayers who say that would not happen, you lose! Just look at the Social Security system, Medicare and Medicaid. Over the years since their inception, taxes have gone up, …”
Don’t be VAT stupid (Cain was AGAINST a National Sales Tax last November)
Cain is a snake oil salesman. So is Obama.
Before anyone complains that a National Sales Tax is not a VAT, those were Cain's words not mine.
“The worst idea is a proposed national sales tax, which is a disguised VAT”
He could then use the catchy title:
"Don’t be VAT stupid" to play on "Don’t be THAT stupid"
The same "one more tool to lie, deceive, manipulate and destroy this country” last November is now being pitched as part of a "Bold" Plan that will now save America.
Cain is long on cute and catchy slogans and very short on consistency.
I'm afraid you may be right. I'm also afraid that he's the best option we've got. At least he ran a fair-sized business successfully. You can't fake that.