Comments about ‘Herman Cain's 9-9-9 would be a taxing disaster’

Just for some information: Did you know that 70 percent of America's budget came from the sale of alcohol before they passed the income tax? I had no idea until I watched a show about the history of the Prohibition Act.

I'll take Cain's 999 over Obama's 999 plan anyday....

9% unemployment
9% inflation
9% tax increase

I agree with you Jay, the 9-9-9 plan could become a disaster, but so is sticking with the current system. As do you, I applaud Herman Cain for being bold enough to suggest a new system. Our current tax code started simple, and became the behemoth it is today. There is no guarantee that if we scrap our current code for a simpler one the same thing won't happen again later down the road, but we have to start somewhere. The move to a simpler code, whether a flat tax, the fair tax, or the 9-9-9 plan is a step in the right direction.

I am not against Cain's 9-9-9 plan, till I realize that once again, it is intentionally designed to double tax some and not others.

All are going to pay 9% income tax. Those with lots of dough, will not have to spend it all. Those most in need of relief are going to, after paying the 9% income tax, have to spend it all on the necessities of life, so they will get to pay another 9% on all they make as a sales tax. That, in my book, means that those closest to the poverty line will pay 18%, not 9% as Cain suggests.

IF Cain wants to be fair, then ONE tax, collected ONCE, evenly across the board, is fair. Anything else I can think of is not - fair, that is.

You completely fail to prove your point that the system would be a disaster. In fact, you only prove that the system would be difficult to get passed in the current political economy. Given that getting congress to agree on what to have for lunch is nearly impossible these days, you basically said nothing.

While there may be some veracity to the statement that the 9-9-9 plan is a bit simplistic, you actually argue for the 9-9-9 plan with your statements that things are becoming more and more complex, and have done so for quite some time. That is unless you prefer having a byzantine tax code that very, very few people can understand.

Basically, your article does not prove the 9-9-9 plan would be a disaster. What's further, you seem to tacitly support the 9-9-9 plan at the end of your article by citing the seemingly immutable law that tax codes become more complicated with age. Perhaps Mr. Cain's 9-9-9 plan would become more complicated with age, but I think we can all agree that a re-boot of the tax code could only help, not hurt.

I find it surprizing that any republicans would support this new 9% sales tax. My effective tax rate usually falls right in a 12% when everything is done. This plan would rffrctively raise it up quite a bit, 9% when I earn it, another 9% when I spend it on top of state and city taxes and no deductions except charity. I'd be paying 17% in sales taxes.

Why does Cain want to raise my taxes?

Only thing wrong with his plan, is it needs to be the 7-7-7 plan. It needs to be revenue "negative" not "nuetral", and if 7-7-7 doesn't accomplish that, then it needs to become the 5-5-5 plan. Then the government needs to live within its means and put money aside for a rainy day, and quit being a burden on its citizens.

Cain's 666 would is a taxing disaster and is DOA. "Wall Street Protesters." At least "THEY" know the truth. Something Glenn Beck don't know, "the truth". It's unfair that lower-income Americans don't pay income tax. Wrong. There's nothing unfair about it. Lower-income Americans pay out a larger share of their paychecks in payroll taxes, sales taxes, user fees, and tolls than everyone else. The "Pizza guy" Herman Cain has overtaken his rivals for the nomination in the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. Mitt Romney is second with 23 percent, and Texas Gov. Rick Perry is third, at 16 percent. Those are lower ratings then Congress has, and not even close to what Obama's are. ALL of these RINO/liberal/Moderate presidential candidate's are killing their own Party, are not for jobs, not for the family, not for the middle-class, not for America. But that's all the RNC has. They are for Banker's and Wall Street. Through the GOP's deregulations things like this happen. A woman gave birth to a baby girl right after completing the Bank of America marathon. Because it was Bank of America, they charged her $5 to take the baby out.

Well Cain has better ideas than some of the others, I like him, although I like Romney better! I'd like to see Gingrich or Santurim as the Vice, possibly Bachman.

The 9-9-9 plan is simple and sensible, so it doesn't have a snowball's chance of ever working.

This country could be run sensibly and simply if we tossed big business and special interests out of the government. Unfortunately doing so would require revolution and a complete rewrite of the constitution.

Want to see democracy? Let's have true democracy.

Take every citizen in the nation between the ages of 18 and 75, toss out all those currently incarcerated or convicted of felonies, put the remaining people in a pot and draw them at random for every elected office in the nation. They get to serve one term and then go back to their everyday lives. That is the only way to ensure the will of the people is truly done.

Good article. Mr. Cain will probably be in second place after Mitt, but ahead of Ron Paul for the Republican nomination.

9-9-9 plan is an intriguing idea. Unfortunately, America adds laws and regulations, and rarely allows reform.

When will we learn?

Those at the bottom pay about 12% in income tax and another 6% in payroll taxes. Cain's plan would have 9% for income then 9% in sales tax, or about 17%. So tax rates at the bottom would be fairly similar.

But what about the top? They'd have to pay 9% on income, 0% on capital gains income, and 9% on whatever spending they do. Hedge fund managers and others get almost all their money from capital gains, conceivably you could very easily have millionaires paying less than 10% in taxes. That's a massive tax cut for the rich.

Also corporate tax levels of 9% are way lower than they currently are so that's another massive tax cut. This all means we'd take in much less revenue than we do now which would increase the deficit. In exchange... the rich get tax cuts.

I was surprised that this article only addressed two flaws with Cain's plan (that it can't get passed and that it adds a new tax without taking any away), while missing many other problems with it.

First, it's far (far!) from revenue neutral. It would create huge revenue shortfalls, putting us much farther into deficit (unless the Laffer curve is different than every empirical example has demonstrated).

Second, he intends to simplify the rates (already the simplest part of the code) and eliminiate most deductions. He still leaves the much, much more complicated issues of defining what qualifies as income (while this is easy for most individuals, it is much harder for businesses and people with non-wage income), what is subject to sales tax, and what is an allowable charitable deduction. The bulk of the current tax code cover these things, not issues applicable to wage earners.

His plan is akin to trying to reduce the complexity of a 747 by changing the way that the tray tables work. While it may make the experience simpler for fliers, it doesn't reduce the need for volumes of manuals and instructions or for a professional pilot in the cockpit.

Pizza guy RINO/GOP don't have any respect for the American people, you will not follow through on this plan. Authorities "will be applying common sense guidelines to make [deportation] decisions, like a person's ties and contributions to the community, their family relationships and military service record In the end, this means more immigration enforcement pressure where it counts the most, and less where it doesn't that's the smartest way to follow the law while we stay focused on working with the Congress to fix it." How will keeping illegal aliens in the country, whatever the reason, help jobless Americans find work? Clearly it will not. Indeed, it will make the plight of unemployed Americans even worse and put even more Americans out of work. You need to get with the program and realize that Americans do not want an amnesty for illegal aliens!. Please start enforcing the law and make sure illegal aliens do not receive amnesties and are not allowed to take U.S. jobs. There are 22 million Americans unable to find a full-time job. Please do not let them down.

@screwdriver

Most of us don't spend our entire income at grocery and retail stores. For example, do you pay sales tax on your mortgage? How about your utility bills? Do you pay sales tax on your child's college tuition, or on the money you put in your savings account? The answer to all these is no, and I highly doubt you spend more than 25% of your income at stores and online. Yes, you may pay local sales tax, property tax, and other fees associated with the expenditures listed above, but you pay those anyway and they are not affected in any way by the 9-9-9 plan. If you figure out how much of your income you actually pay sales tax on right now, I think you will find that would pay less taxes under Cain's plan, unless of course you are a shop-a-holic and go into major credit card debt every month.

In MY SITUATION, I would decidedly pay much more. But it would be worth it if I/we could make all the special interest lobbyists "go nuts"!

We would save 400 billion per yr. on IRS collection/coercion alone!

Worth a try!

We'll settle this right here and now, we know Cain's 666 would is a taxing disaster and is DOA. So to be fair, we'll just do this come 2012. The "Pizza guy" Herman Cain will be the veep, and for President Van Jones. That'll keep the RNC happy, and also the NAACP, seeing they want another black elected. At least then, the untra filthy rich will "pay their fair share" in more taxes, and the middleclass will prosper a bit more. And the "Wall Street Protesters" can calm down a bit more. Before all of America is in ritos everywhere.

I told you I would tell you the truth (something Glenn Beck don't know how to do). I didn't say you would like it.

My views.

The only problem with 999 is that it should be 555, it is neither too simple nor would be a disaster as the article suggests. If Cain were to win the Presidency, the current stalemate being run by the Dems in the Senate and Administration would end. So, the chance of passage with some modification is almost assured. A new President with focus always gets his top legislation passed. For example, the stimulus, Obamacare, and FrankDood for the Obama administration. Each pretty difficult to do now, but not for a new President with political majorities in both houses. I appreciate Mr. Cain suggesting something better and new. Rather than the current add another patch to a worn out tire approach of other candidates like Mr. Huntsman and Romney.

I admire Cain for being so bold as to go against his party, they had already decided to balance the budget on the backs of the older Americans by doing away with medicare.

"Tax" is a swear word in this state and country because.....? Mostly we have been taught to hate the word from youth, or even birth as it represents evil and the big brother.

Taxes can be useful as they construct schools and roads that each of us use. They hire teachers, police, firemen and women. Some people toss the word socialism around when the thought of adding healthcare to this list but is it really?

Googling the word tax you can find that those in other countries who pay the highest taxes in the world are much happier than are Americans, live longer, live healthier, have less sickness, disease and way less suicide. Most of the countries enjoy a higher level of learning and enjoy life to a greater extent than US folks.

We scream and yell and threaten to revolt if we are asked to pay 1% increase in taxes we could get along without if it were really needed.

Cain will fall as fast as he rose, just like Perry.

Mitt will remain as consistent as ever and will grab the nomination.