If Herman Cain gets his 9-9-9 plan through, there will be, and then it can be raised.
That's the danger.
Clear?
RE: If Herman Cain gets his 9-9-9 plan through, there will be, and then it can be raised.
If that’s the fear, then ANY PROPOSAL MADE TO REFORM OUR TAX CODE will have the same problem.
First of all, if the base assumption is that no matter how great an idea might be, DC politicians will find a way to corrupt it… why is the 999 plan singled out for special treatment?
What makes anyone think that Romney’s 87-page PDF Economic Plan won’t also be instantly corrupted and changed?
If the assumption is that Congresscritters will instantly transform it into a basket of giveaways and boondoggles? Or even a Flat Tax?
If the starting point of evaluating any policy proposal or plan is that Congress will get in there and mess it up, I honestly don’t see any reason to support any candidate on the basis of any issue. Because we’d have to assume that his/her great idea would just be transformed into a steaming pile of dung by Congress.
One particularly amazing critique of the 999 Plan theorized that we’d have President Cain coupled to a Democrat Congress, which would then result in the 999 plan becoming the 90-90-90 plan someday.
C’mon people; are we seriously contemplating that we’d all go to work trying to get the GOP nominee elected President, but skip out on all of the other races such that we’d end up with a GOP President and a Dem Congress?
The larger point — one which I’ve raised — is that the only way that the 999 plan (or any other plan on any other issue) is not transmogrified into some atrocity is the vigilance of the electorate.
There is simply no way to trust a politician — no matter whom, no matter what — to do the right thing time and again.
The only way we as a nation can defend our rights, get the policies we want, and prevent corruption by politicians is to be vigilant against such things and to keep up the pressure on all of them to do the right thing.
What makes it any easier to raise than the taxes it replaces?
Oh, I’m clear. I’m clear that you don’t understand that democrats can raise ANY tax by ANY name.
If there is NO national sales tax to raise, they’ll simply look for other taxes to raise.
So it’s a straw argument. While there would be “nothing preventing” the democrats from raising a national sales tax because it exists, there is NOTHING preventing the democrats from raising the income tax - BECAUSE IT EXISTS.
Don’t you get it? It’s six of one, half dozen of another! The argument you are making is a complete canard - a total straw argument.
What you fail to realize is that the tax code is so incredibly byzantine now that the democrats SNEAK tax increases in constantly. With a 9-9-9 plan and nothing else, they wouldn’t be able to sneak anything in. It would be clear as day. That way, changes can be properly resisted.
I’ll take clarity any day of the week over the ridiculous mess we have now. Don’t you see? That’s what Cain’s plan offers: clarity.
So not only is your argument a straw one, it’s actually counterintuitive. Under the current plan it is EASIER to quietly raise taxes. Under Cain’s plan, it isn’t as easy.
I haven’t seen ANY plan from any other candidate that proposes this kind of bold simplification of the tax code. And yet people like you call it a bad thing. It’s mind-numbing.