Yeah, you emphasized that Cain was giving low-income people a break using snide language, but hid the fact that Perry does the exact same thing.
You misinterpreted the language and didn’t think at all about the phrase “big exemptions”. In any event, I like Cain, and I like 999. I simply don’t think that it will prove as attractive as Perry’s plan for the reasons I mentioned. If I’m wrong, I’m still happy.
I forgot to mention that no one has seen the details of Perry’s plan to give people a choice between the new and old systems. Those details may be fine, or they might cause the entire plan to be unsaleable. We’ll see. I do wish we wouldn’t eat our own, though.
This morning I read a Manhattan Institute analysis of 999 which shows that the corporate tax component is a VAT. I had assumed that it was just a flat corporate income tax.
Introducing a VAT would be very bad policy, and this is a deal-breaker for me and most conservatives (once they learn this) on 999. I still would enthusiastically support Cain if he gets the nomination, but he needs to rethink his tax proposal.