Um, 9-9-9 and the flat tax are not the same animals.
999 is a hybrid of flat and fair tax and you will be using some the same arguments to defend the flat tax that some Perry supporters have been using against the 999.
Correct, completely different.
The 9-9-9 plan moves part of the tax burden onto the sale of goods by foreign businesses and would dramatically re-orient the incentives in our economy back in favor of capital-intensive domestic manufacturing jobs and in favor of saving and investment.
The flat tax retains the structure of our failed tax code but moves to a single rate (or two or three rates) and eliminates deductions and credits. (However, don't be surprised if Perry's plan even retains things like the home mortgage deduction.)
The 9-9-9 plan would do something real to fix the deep structural problems in the US economy.
Retaining the current code and merely eliminating the tax tables in favor of a flat rate and eliminating some deductions, by comparison is merely rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.