i’m sorry, cain’s 999 is not a serious plan. it is an unconstitutional plan. there is nowhere in the constitution that authorizes a national sales or value added tax.
The original Constitution authorizes Congress to impose excise taxes and duties. Those are consumption taxes.
I believe a consumption tax is preferable to an income tax. That is exactly what we want to do in tax reform.
The constitution authorizes an excise tax (that’s a sales tax). Cain’s 999 gets a handle on the unconstitutional progressive income tax, reduces the top rates to a flat 9 percent, plus eliminates the unconstitutional social security tax and the capital gains tax, and other taxes as well. I’d like to repeal the 16th and abolish the income tax altogether, but will take this trade-off in the meantime until we can get enough votes.
One of the outstanding benefit of a national sales tax is that the underground economy does not escape paying taxes and force the rest of us to carry the load.