Number 1 - You are adding in a National Tax on top of the State tax I already pay - so you are now taxed twice on all sales - Homes, Cars, grocery, clothing, movies, dinner out, Gas Gas Gas, even for the most frugal of shoppers, this money will be hard to come by as now items that were not part of sales tax will be taxed by the National 9%. Pay attention to the markets already - many suppliers and grocers will need to raise their prices to cover the increase as they also will have to pay more to Buy the Products that they will sell as well as increases in shipping costs etc , so that 2.39 loaf of bread will be more like 3.50 even 4.00 in some areas. Basically add in about 3 thousand more a year just to Spend your money. THAT RAISES TAXES ON THOSE MAKING THE LEAST
Number 2 - On the 9% Income Tax across the board - Well, the last time I checked if you get a paycheck and a w2 that means your Income is wages which categorizes you into this tax...so of your 45 Thousand a year income, you pay tax to the tune of 9% WITH NO EXEMPTIONS, DEDUCTIONS, or CREDITS - bye bye Dependent Child, Property Tax Credit, Interest Credit for School Loans, etc etc - Also! There is no longer a credit to employers who pay a share of the wages taxes, so it will be even more expensive for them to retain or more importantly Hire new workers. Not looking good for the little guy here. Now. what about the Big guy who made 1.2 Million from his job? where he set himself up as an 'employee' not the owner and paid himself in dividends? NO TAX on Dividends remember??? Get out of Tax Free Pass. And On the Business End? If that same business took in 7 Million in capital gains from investing the earnings of the corporation in stocks etc Cain suggests he only pays tax on the first 25% (Down from the 35% currently in place) ...until Cains plan phases OUT the Capital Gains tax in part 3 of his scheme and all that remains is the 9% National Tax. Think about that. Collin (and the rest of those that take a paycheck) will pay taxes on his Entire Earnings while those again in the top 1% will get away with 75 percent of their earnings tax free. And because there is no Estate Tax, if they own Millions in property as well, again they get out of Tax free while Collin will pay every year the MAXIMUM on our Property Taxes...because we own 1 house not 20 - as do most of the middle and lower class. THAT RAISES TAXES ON THOSE MAKING THE LEAST
Number Three - What is the actual "National Tax" of the 3rd phase of this plan??? Sky's the limit perhaps? Or what happens when 999 turns into 11 11 11 or 15 15 15 on a bad year....Flat tax is falling Flat. THAT RAISES TAXES ON THOSE MAKING THE LEAST
Special consideration must also be given to the REVENUE or lack there of with this plan. His notion of "widening the tax base" is making those at the very very bottom "pay their share" while those at the very top "keep their share". A person on a Social Security Disability Income that is less than 14 Thousand a year can not survive this plan yet the CEO of some insurance company or bank who pays himself in dividends contributes NOTHING. 70 percent of the IRS's Capital Gains Revenue came from the top 1.4%...Billions of Revenue that Drive America and keep in mind it is not the 1.4 percents America it is 300 million peoples America. In the Cain plan, Gains tax is abolished and you will never be able to collect billions from the poor and impoverished to replace that...but you come after them because those are the "Americans that get by every year not paying taxes at all!"
And how do States already reeling in this recession cover the shortages from these businesses and corporations? Cain can not be bothered with sticky details, maybe he thinks "the Churches will take care of it" as he suggests for those that will be on there ear when he proposes to do away with that Social Security and Medicare problem. Because if you pay attention and read his plan, he does not fund those programs. If he takes away the payroll tax that takes away the funding for Social Security and Medicare. Period. He likes to regurgitate the word "Personalization" and imply that we should instead have a portion of our earnings put into personal investments accounts....in the same shaky market that is UNREGULATED (and Repubs won't vote to change that) where the firm that holds your money can make record earnings on the capital gains of those accounts, and probably loose it all in some back door scheme where they can get some TARP to balance their loss and you, well when you do need to retire you are on your own. On top of the fact that it does nothing NOTHING to address the funds needed to cover those already ON SS! Or those too close to retiring to ever benefit from Privatizing err I mean PERSONALIZING. He suggested that he is using the Chilean Model for these proposals? Well, incidentally - he failed to actually look at what happened when Chile did that - That plan has “left millions without savings for their retirements and originally provided no safety net for the poor.” According to estimates by Chile’s undersecretary for pensions, “in 2007, only 60 percent of Chilean workers had some kind of pension coverage, down from 86 percent in the 1970s.”. That Breaks the Back of the Working CLASS and Gives Windfalls to the Corporate Class - FAIL.
Cain just can't Explain...how this will benefit anyone other than those already benefiting. Perhaps because he has never balanced a State budget let alone a National one? All he knows is corporate math - how to get the best ROIC...and that works. For your Godfather Pizza's, Not For 300 Million Americans. His response when faced with opposition was "The reason my plan is being attacked so much is the lobbyists, accountants and politicians, they don't want to throw out (the) current tax code and replace (it) with something that's simple and fair," WRONG. There ARE indeed ways to improve and repair the current tax code, but CONGRESS has not done what they are supposed to in terms of addressing it. I don't like this plan because it theory and assumption based. Every number your accountant has come up with are based solely in assumptions. I believe in the Progressive Tax Model proven in our economy - That Regressive Tax puts a larger burden on those with less means to pay hurts the middle to lower class which is 80 percent of the Tax Paying BASE. - THAT, Mr.Cain, is why I do not like your plan, That is why naysayers are saying Nay and it is not some 999 gimmick, But Congress who needs to make the hard decisions and make the changes to the tax system - that is what the 99 Percent have been demanding - to replace the current wealthfare tax free for all on the top 20 or 1 or what have you and balance it back to what was pre Bush and economically proven to produce results.
Logic and Judge Judy say "if it doesn't make sense it's usually not true" and you can take that to the bank! But not much else on the 999.
Knowledge is Power - Sir Francis Bacon
