Click on the cane.
Posted on 10/26/2011 6:30:25 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
I like almost everything about Herman Cain. He is as solid a free-market supporter as any of the candidates. He is a staunch supporter of Israel. He is a true believer in the Constitution and is 100% pro-life. His instincts reflect those of the Tea Party. But I cannot embrace his 9-9-9 plan. It is too close to the fair tax, and too far from a flat tax. But consider something like 18-0-0. Read on.
The best comment so far on the now-famous 9-9-9 plan was Michele Bachmann's "The devil is in the details." Indeed, it is not easy to flesh out all the details. I will stick my neck out and try to infer some important details from what has been published. First, look at some OMB figures representing tax revenues from various sources in FY 2010. These were used in my recent article in AT.
Table 1: FY 2010 Tax Revenue
Revenue Source Revenue ($) Revenue(%)
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Personal Income Tax $956B 44% |
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Payroll Taxes (Social Security, Medicare) $746B 34% |
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Corporate Income Tax $198B 9% |
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Other $273B 13% |
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Total Receipts $2.174T 100% |
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Cain has reached out and grabbed the bull by the horns and is wrestling the SOB to the ground... what he is doing with the 999 is kicking ass and asking questions later. Sure, it may not be the best that can be imagined, but it is a framework from which true believers in freedom can hammer out the best that can be had in this existence. The underlying principle is freedom... freedom from an onerous tax code, freedom from the SS-IRS, freedom from political manipulation of society. Give the man some breathing room, he is the one driving this train.
Click on the cane.
I agree. Suddenly, tax reform is THE topic and everyone has a tax plan, but Mr. Cains 999 plan is the driving force.
Cain has made it clear that the tax code would not have “thousands of pages” of tax code.
The article itself is full of gooblygook, typical of writers who love to see their words published.
He makes even more suppositions, of which he accuses Cain, than Cain does.
For instance he insists that the 9% sales tax will become some mythical high number when history clearly shows that voters will fight higher sales taxes with a determination not shown against the many hidden taxes we pay, such as payroll taxes on goods we purchase, corporate taxes, etc.
He makes a complicated scenario regarding how the sale of a used car will be taxed when it is clear that the sales price will not be taxed. The sales person and the dealership will pay a tax on their profitq. There is nothing more clear cut than that.
My own belief is that once a national sales tax comes into being, it will be very difficult to raise it.
“I like almost everything about Herman Cain, but.....” reminds me of a women’s card party.
“I like Mary, but did you hear.............” And the nasty gossip begins.
>>The article itself is full of gobbledygook, typical of writers who love to see their words published.<<
Yes, that plus he writes: “There may be some provisions for other corporate taxes, but I confess to not understanding those at all.”
Might as well quit reading after that, because he clearly didn’t even take the time to understand the 9% corporate tax component, and thinks it’s an income tax. In spite of that, he decides that the “numbers seem not to add up in theory,” whatever he means by that.
Not a good article to make his point that we should just go to a flat tax...which might be a good idea, by the way.
The author wants a flat tax. Here’s the biggest problem with a flat tax, and it’s illustrated with the numbers in his article:
We get too much money from low income earners via the SS/Medicare taxes to switch to a straight flat tax!
Why is this a problem? Because as soon as you go to a straight flat tax, the politicians will start raising the standard deduction so that the low income earners pay no tax at all (instead of the effective 15.3% they now pay via SS/Medicare taxes). In time the standard deduction will be raised to the point where less than half the citizens are paying income taxes and we’ll be right back in the soup we’re in now.
The difference will be that they won’t be paying any tax at all, instead of the present situation where at least they’re paying SS/Medicare taxes (and, yes, getting income tax rebates that offset those taxes in many cases...I’ll grant that.)
This is why the sales tax component is important, or the VAT (business tax), or both...everyone pays something. I honestly don’t think a flat tax will do that unless it’s not really a flat tax, but a two-tiered tax, say 5% on the first $10,000 per person and 20% thereafter. And the only way I would trust that one was if it was embedded in the Constitution. Make $10 babysitting as a 12 year old?...send in 50 cents to support your federal government. Could be worse systems...
In fact, during and following WWII, kids were encouraged to save for war bonds, to support the war effort, and to pay for it later. Well, we’re in a financial war to save this country from bankruptcy, so kids (and low-income earners) paying 5% on their earnings might be just the message we should be sending if we ever hope to get out of this mess. Wonder what Dave Ramsey would think?
Sorry for the rambling post...
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Every thing before BUT, in the mind of the author, is bullshit.
I like ... BUT...
The ‘OTHER’ $273billion jumps off the page.
That revenue has to be gas TAX, and other forms of sales taxes/fees etc., the Federal Government collects.
They should be publicized as existing SALES TAXES and they clearly exceed more than 9 percent.
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