" This isn’t a policy; it’s a joke."

[babylonsister]

Posted with permission.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_10/revisiting_the_999_nonsense032759.php

October 12, 2011 10:05 AM
Revisiting the ‘9-9-9’ nonsense

By Steve Benen


Last night’s debate in New Hampshire was supposed to be about Mitt Romney. It was instead about Herman Cain’s “9-9-9” plan, which the former pizza company executive claims will revitalize the economy, end partisan bickering in Washington, balance the budget, and generally lead to an American utopia.

Ideally, we could do what the political world has done for months: generally ignore this foolish gimmick. But when a policy idea — I use the phrase loosely — becomes the central focus of a debate for presidential candidates, it’s probably worth taking the time to look at it in a little more detail.

What Cain calls his “9-9-9” economic plan is basically his approach to tax policy — he envisions a system with a 9% income tax, a 9% corporate tax, and a 9% sales tax. Chris Cillizza praised it this morning for its “beautiful, political simplicity.”

The bad news is, political simplicity notwithstanding, the plan doesn’t make any sense. Bruce Bartlett, a Republican economist and veteran of the Reagan and H.W. Bush administrations, published an analysis of the plan yesterday, explaining that it would, as a practical matter, raise taxes on the poor considerably, make it more expensive for businesses to hire workers, and increase the deficit.

At a minimum, the Cain plan is a distributional monstrosity. The poor would pay more while the rich would have their taxes cut, with no guarantee that economic growth will increase and good reason to believe that the budget deficit will increase.

Even allowing for the poorly thought through promises routinely made on the campaign trail, Mr. Cain’s tax plan stands out as exceptionally ill conceived.

Michael Linden, the Center for American Progress’ director of tax and budget policy, ran the numbers on Cain’s plan and came to the same conclusion.

And while we’re at it, the “9-9-9” proposal, at least in its current form, also suffers from constitutional problems.

Wait, it gets better. Last night, Cain said he relied on “well-recognized economists that helped me to develop this 9-9-9 plan,” but he won’t tell us who they are. He said the plan has been “well studied,” but he won’t say by whom or what they found, specifically. Cain added that his campaign had an “independent firm … dynamically score” his plan, but he won’t share the results of the analysis.

This isn’t a policy; it’s a joke.

[unblock]

1. michelle bachman says turn it upside down and it's the devil's plan

can't argue with logic like that!



a kidding aside, it's a tax plan coming from a republican, so of course it completely sucks.

duh.

[Pacifist Patriot]

4. Isn't it sad that essentially that's the only analysis required these days.

Crunching numbers is simply a way of confirming the obvious.

[Beartracks]

7. But it MUST be true, because if you play it backwards...

... it still sounds like "Nine Nine Nine"! Cain's plan is flawless!!

================================

[lumberjack_jeff]

2. Shit the pizza guy says. n/t

[treestar]

3. Republicans always prefer simplicity

It lets them pretend they know what they are talking about.

[OHdem10]

5. Poor Suckers think they will just pay 9 % tax. When he says broaden

the base he means the poor will now pay "their fair
share of taxes" so the Rich can remain exempt.

What is is this telling people to buy used goods
and avoid paying taxes.

Why the Media never press on these points, I will never
understand.

t

[notadmblnd]

6. Well of course it is, as is his economic adviser.

It's hilarious. either Herman Cain is insane or he's incredibly stupid. More than likely it's a mix o both. Seems that his economic adviser is a branch level bank employee in a town of 6k.

http://goingconcern.com/2011/10/herman-cains-economics-advisor-was-trained-in-the-arts-of-debits-and-credits/

Who is the mastermind behind this plan? Is it a young economics policy wonk? Is it a Ivy League economist known the world-over? Is it one of Cain’s former delivery boys who came up with the plan after sharing a jay with an extra friendly customer? NOPE! It’s Rich Lowrie. Rich Lowrie of Cleveland? No? He went to Case Western Reserve University and got an accounting degree. Still nothing?

[mrdmk]

8. Another name is called a "Flat Tax", and the most regressive of tax polices

Just ask a number of countries in South America who tried it. They had or soon had the military running the country. Some people cannot learn from other people's mistakes...