[sickoflibs]

FROM LINK :”By contrast, the three tax bases for Mr. Cain's 9-9-9 plan add up to about $33 trillion. But the plan exempts from any tax people below the poverty line. Using poverty tables, this exemption reduces each tax base by roughly $2.5 trillion. Thus, Mr. Cain's 9-9-9 tax base for his business tax is $9.5 trillion, for his income tax $7.7 trillion, and for his sales tax $8.3 trillion. And there you have it! Three federal taxes at 9% that would raise roughly $2.3 trillion and replace the current income tax, corporate tax, payroll tax (employer and employee), capital gains tax and estate tax.

The whole purpose of a flat tax, à la 9-9-9, is to lower marginal tax rates and simplify the tax code. With lower marginal tax rates (and boy will marginal tax rates be lower with the 9-9-9 plan), both the demand for and the supply of labor and capital will increase. Output will soar, as will jobs. Tax revenues will also increase enormously—not because tax rates have increased, but because marginal tax rates have decreased.

By making the tax codes a lot simpler, we'd allow individuals and businesses to spend a lot less on maintaining tax records; filing taxes; hiring lawyers, accountants and tax-deferral experts; and lobbying Congress. As I wrote on this page earlier this year (”The 30-Cent Tax Premium,” April 18), for every dollar of business and personal income taxes paid, some 30 cents in out-of-pocket expenses also were paid to comply with the tax code. Under 9-9-9, these expenses would plummet without a penny being lost to the U.S. Treasury. It's a win-win.”
Cain's Stimulating ‘9-9-9’ Tax Reform(direct link)

Worth reading.

I still like the 9-9-9 idea but I don't think Cain is doing a good job selling it. A key to any proposal like this is to make the case that it makes us MORE competitive in a world economy where trade is a reality, and therefore helps everyone here.

[fightinJAG]

So let’s all help Cain sell this plan. Our country really needs it.

I take exception to one point in the excerpt. The purpose of 999 is not just to lower rates and “simplify the tax code.” One of the very important purposes, which implements one of the animating principles of the Laffer Curve, is to BROADEN THE TAX BASE.

If we don’t do this now, the non-taxpayers will soon outnumber the taxpayers. At that point, it is game over. We will never have the votes to reject ever-more confiscatory tax rates (remember FDR took the top tax rate to 90%!) so as to pay for more and more free stuff for the parasites and the vote-buyers.

999 is critical to preserving our freedom, not just engendering our prosperity.