The Three Things You Need To Know About Pizza Guy’s 999 Plan

[FORD]

NEW ANALYSIS: The Three Things You Need To Know About Herman Cain’s 999 Plan

By Guest Blogger on Oct 13, 2011 at 2:15 pm

Our guest blogger is Michael Linden, Director of Tax and Budget Policy at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Herman Cain’s 999 plan was the star of the GOP’s primary debate this week, and with the increased attention has come increased scrutiny. Cain has been slow to let the details of his plan dribble out, but in an attempt to back up his claims that the plan is revenue-neutral and not regressive, his campaign finally revealed some specifics yesterday. With those new details, here is an updated analysis, with the three main things you need to know about 999:

1) 999 Will Raise Taxes On Middle- And Low-Income Americans, By A Lot:

Cain’s tax plan consists of three different 9 percent taxes — one on wage income (investment income is exempt), one on sales of goods and services (including food, housing, and medicine), and one on business income (investments and purchases from other businesses are deductible; wages, however, are not). But most Americans will end up paying all three of those taxes, for a combined tax rate of 27 percent of their income.

That’s because middle and low-income Americans get all, or nearly all, of their income from ordinary wages — all of which would be subject to Cain’s 9 percent wage tax — and then they spend all of their income, which means it would be taxed again by the 9 percent sales tax. Finally, the burden of the 9 percent business income tax would be passed on to them as well, either in the form of lower wages — since wages are not deductible — or in the form of higher prices for goods and services.

The bottom line is that most Americans will pay all three of Cain’s taxes, making their real federal tax rate 27 percent. Compare that to the current tax code, under which someone in the bottom quintile pays two percent of their income in federal taxes and someone in the middle quintile pays 15 percent. The fact is that pretty much everyone making up to around $100,000 a year would pay more under Cain’s plan than they do now.

2) 999 Will Give The Rich A HUGE Tax Cut:

Because the 999 plan will operate, in practice, as a 9 percent tax on wages, and an 18 percent tax on goods and services, only a fraction of a wealthy household’s income will end up subject to these taxes. That’s because wealthy people get a lot of their income from capital gains — which are exempt from the wage tax — and they don’t spend all of their income, so anything they save won’t be subject to taxes either.

Today, someone in the richest 1 percent typically pays about 30 percent of his or her income in federal taxes. Since people at the top of the income ladder make about half of their income from capital gains, and only spend about half of their income in a given year, their tax rate would drop all the way down to 13.5 percent. That’s even lower than what middle-income people pay today.

3) 999 Would Cause Massive Deficits, Enormous Amounts Of New Debt:

Despite the Cain campaign’s claims to the contrary, 999 would not raise nearly enough revenue to close the budget deficit. In an earlier analysis that mistakenly assumed his 9 percent business tax would operate like our current corporate income tax, we underestimated how much revenue it would raise. But even accounting for the new specifics, the 999 plan would still only generate around 14 percent of GDP in revenue. That’s even less than we are collecting now, when revenue levels are at historic lows. Even if Cain adopted all of the draconian spending cuts contained in the House Republican Budget, 14 percent of GDP in revenue would still result in $11.5 trillion in added debt from 2013 through 2021.

Hopefully Cain will spend a few minutes giving this analysis a read, since he has “no idea” how his plan would actually work.

Link (http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/10/13/343181/cain-999-plan-analysis/)

[BigBadBrian]

http://media.townhall.com/Townhall/Car/b/lb1014cd20111013082951.jpg

[sadaist]

Cain has “no idea” how his plan would actually work.




Please do not underestimate Herman Cains intelligence. This guys resume is fucking amazing. I just heard it today and damn...I'm very impressed. I swear this is the resume of 10 people. How this guy has done so much is beyond me. This doesn't even include his family, cancer bout, and many other extracurricular things. Like the guys politics or not....you have to respect this guy. Talk about working his tail off for his entire life. Sheesh.

Serious dudes. Read about this man. If he were to add President or Vice President of the United States onto that resume it would be unbelievable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Cain

Raised poor on a farm and worked as a chauffeur, barber and janitor. (his mom was a cleaning woman)

Graduated from Morehouse College in 1967 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics

Did his graduate studies at Purdue and earned his masters in computer science

Systems analyst for Coca-Cola company

Director of business analysis with Pillsbury

Managed 400 Burger King locations throughout Philadelphia

CEO and chairman of Godfather's Pizza

Mathematician in ballistics for the United States Navy

Deputy chairman and chairman of the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

Associate minister at Antioch Baptist Church North

CEO of the National Restaurant Association

Position on board of directors of Aquila, Inc (energy company)

Served as a board member for Nabisco, Whirlpool, Reader's Digest, and AGCO, Inc.

Writes a syndicated op-ed column, which is distributed by the North Star Writers Group

Hosted The Herman Cain Show on Atlanta talk radio station WSB

Senior economic adviser to the Dole/Kemp presidential campaign in 1996

[BigBadBrian]

Please do not underestimate Herman Cains intelligence.

Yeah FORD, don't underestimate him just because he's black.

Isn't that the "go-to" argument you liberals use when people criticize Obama? :clap:

[fifth element]

great resume or not, it does not make this plan a sound one.

I'd like to hear some more discussion about it

[FORD]

I'm not so sure that working for the "Federal" Reserve, an energy company, or being a board member at Nabisco (a division of the Phillip Morris tobacco company) are exactly GOOD things to have on a resume. Nor is hosting a right wing talk show.

Anyway, it's obvious that Cain has become the KKKoch Brothers preferred candidate, now that their attempt to draft Jabba the Christie has failed. And that -along with this fantasy land anti-tax plan - is the biggest reason he's unelectable.

[sadaist]

I'm not so sure that working for the "Federal" Reserve, an energy company, or being a board member at Nabisco (a division of the Phillip Morris tobacco company) are exactly GOOD things to have on a resume.

.


The point here Ford is that you don't get those positions by having low intelligence. And yes, working for the Federal Reserve could be a GREAT thing depending on his current views since he now knows the inner workings and a lot of dirty secrets on how they operate.

FYI - yesterday Harry Belefonte claimed Herman Cain was denied intelligence and only got to where he is in life by extremely good fortune and slipping through the cracks while a white person blinked their eyes. This was on CNN I believe to Joy Behar. Umm.....this guy worked his fucking ass off for everything he has achieved in life. He did not get lucky and slip through any cracks and pull a fast one on whitey.

Someone oughta just tally his bananas.

[sadaist]

great resume or not, it does not make this plan a sound one.

I'd like to hear some more discussion about it


I don't know enough about the plan to say if it's good or not. Hell, I have trouble balancing my own checkbook & filing my 1040 EZ form. But the current liberal playbook coming out on this man is that he is just an ignorant pizza boy who happens to have a little bit of charisma. And also that the right is only supporting him because he is black to try & prove they aren't racist. These are ridiculous accusations once you take a look at Herman Cains actual education, experience, qualifications & work ethic. I really like the guy. Not so sure about him being President or not, but I am glad he is getting a lot of face time & everyone is having to take him and his ideas seriously. It really is making people think a little differently.....and that is always a good thing.

[FORD]

So here's Pizza Guy, never elected to anything in his life, and claiming to be the ultimate outsider, but now he's seen on tape arguing with Bill Clinton in 1994, had an official position on the Dole/Kemp campaign in 1996, and worked for all the GOP's favorite industries in the years in between.

Doesn't sound like much of an outsider to me. They just wouldn't run him before now, and we all know why.

[BigBadBrian]

great resume or not, it does not make this plan a sound one.

I'd like to hear some more discussion about it

Seek help; you're in trouble with that last statement. Do your own research.

[sadaist]

So here's Pizza Guy, never elected to anything in his life,


Compared to community organizer guy? Who never ran anything in his life?

[FORD]

I'm not sure running Godfather's Pizza is something he could brag about. Does that chain even still exist? I know there aren't any around here anymore. Used to have three of them locally. Actually thought they had decent pizza (though I had no idea about Cain or his politics at the time, obviously.)

But if a chain restaurant loses a lot of franchises, then it would seem the guy at the top is doing something wrong.

Chimp and Cheney were serial business failures, and we'll be paying for what they did to this country for the rest of our lives. Do we need another failed businessman in the White House?

Or even a "successful" businessman, for that matter (if being a corporate raider and the Mormon holy prophet of outsourcing can be defined as "success")

[jhale667]

Cain reveals himself to be more of a joke with each statement he makes every day. And everything I've read or heard about the "Nein nein nein" plan indicates it will NOT be an improvement, nor will it benefit the middle class and poor people. The fact that he himself has "no idea" how it will work is not a confidence builder either.

[chefcraig]

I'm not sure running Godfather's Pizza is something he could brag about. Does that chain even still exist? I know there aren't any around here anymore. Used to have three of them locally. Actually thought they had decent pizza (though I had no idea about Cain or his politics at the time, obviously.)

But if a chain restaurant loses a lot of franchises, then it would seem the guy at the top is doing something wrong.


According to the chain's website (http://godfathers.com/About_Us/), there are supposedly 600 locations in 40 states. If that is the case, they must be disguised as gas stations or are using some sort of stealth advertising gimmick, because the store locator says there are 11 of the damned things with 25 miles of my house, but I've never seen a single one of 'em!

[FORD]

Technically, there is one still in this state, but it's inside the Ft. Lewis army base, so not exactly open to the general public.

Too bad.... even despite Cain's politics, I'd probably still take Godfather's Pizza over Little Caesar's or Domino's. It was easy for me to boycott Domino's because they were owned by right wing assholes AND they made shitty pizza. Same with Pizza Slut after they hired Mush Limpdick to do their ads in the early 1990s.

[sadaist]

There is one near me in Temecula, CA. Ate there 2-3 times in the last 9 years. They have decent pizza. But the draw was the all you can eat lunch buffet.

[sadaist]

Actually for pizza, I prefer it from small independent places or actual Italian restaurants. I LOVE New York style "floppy pizza" where when you hold the slice by the crust the rest of it droops down all floppy like. None of the big chains serve that type and that's what I like. Hard to find out here in California :(

[FORD]

Godfathers seemed to invent their own type of pizza - about halfway between the NY thin crust and the Chicago style deep dish. If Cain's politics were like his pizza, he'd be a DLC so-called "Democrat" instead of a KKKoch puppet Republican. :biggrin:

[Guitar Shark]

This is a nice discussion and all, but ultimately it's irrelevant. There's no way the Republican party will nominate a black man for president. Not yet, anyway.

[Dr. Love]

Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics?

Since when was Math an art??

[FORD]

Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics?

Since when was Math an art??

Well, it must be "art" to think this country can function if the rich only pay 9% taxes, because it sure as Hell isn't mathematically logical.

[Seshmeister]

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[Seshmeister]

I worry about people that think too much like this guy. It's also very common in people that make it big in show business.

They make a false causation argument. Because they work hard and achieve high they make the incorrect assumption that to do really well from a poor start all you need to do is work hard. That's just not true. It's kind of like a lottery winner saying all you need to do is buy the ticket. Ok if you don't buy the ticket it will never happen but just because you got lucky doesn't change the fact that for most people it isn't enough.

Most rich people start out rich and most people in really shitty jobs work harder than people in well paid jobs.

By that I mean I would rather fuck around in an office chatting for a couple of hours around the water cooler, browse the internet and then do maybe 5 hours work in a day because I got a good education than clean toilets. Fucking around for a few hours a day and then doing an extra hour at the end to impress the boss and miss the hassle of feeding the kids or getting them ready for bed isn't working hard really if you're honest with yourself.

That's not my day but it's not uncommon.

[jhale667]

This is a nice discussion and all, but ultimately it's irrelevant. There's no way the Republican party will nominate a black man for president. Not yet, anyway.

No matter how much he kisses up and "says the right things"...Not. Gonna. Happen.





Sad but true...

[Nitro Express]

This is a nice discussion and all, but ultimately it's irrelevant. There's no way the Republican party will nominate a black man for president. Not yet, anyway.

I think we finally are past the race, gender, religion bit finally in politics. The religious right in the party seem to have a bigger problem with Romney being Mormon than they do about Cain being black. Even at that it's a small number in the party that have a problem with that. It seems like the loudest people sometimes are the minority in party politics. I would say more and more people in this country no longer claim to be in any party. I think we are going back to voting the candidate than voting for the party.

[Nitro Express]

The biggest problem with Herman Cain is he sees no need in auditing the Federal Reserve. That should be priority number one. We need to open that rabbit hole and take a big fucking peek. It's the Fed that caused the economic problems by keeping those interest rates too low for too long. Nothing like making money off a balloon economy when you have the government covering your losses. A free market should decide the value of a commodity or commodities and that or those should decide the value of the currency. Not some closed to the public and even the congress bank who pulls an interest rate figure out of thin air.

[Nitro Express]

The Democratic Party got destroyed by a bomb. The Obamabomb. That party has no rudder anymore and it's going to be interesting to see a failed president try and hijack this anti-Wall Street movement for his own gain when he himself was bought and paid for by Wall Street. Want to beat the Republicans run someone else. You can bitch and moan all you want but until you run someone better you have nothing to offer.

[FORD]

I heard a rumor that the KKKoch Brothers have finally realized that Cain can't win, but they will let him run as VP, and then one of the Koch's themselves will take the top slot on the ticket.

Koch/Cain 2012 - Now tell me that's not a Hell of a ticket?:smiley-sniffer:

[Nitro Express]

I heard a rumor that the KKKoch Brothers have finally realized that Cain can't win, but they will let him run as VP, and then one of the Koch's themselves will take the top slot on the ticket.

Koch/Cain 2012 - Now tell me that's not a Hell of a ticket?:smiley-sniffer:

Have you raised some hell with the Democratic Party letting them know running an unelectable candidate a second term is unacceptable. Remember. It's not Obama's party. It's YOUR party. If you want to beat the republicans you have to have a better quality product to peddle. What you are peddling now is Republican foreign policy, economic policy, and war policy. Let's see, bail out Wall Street. Take Wall Street money. Giving government positions to former corporate heads. Starting more wars and continuing wars. So much for bringing the troops home, closing Gitmo, ending torture, and my dog has created more shovel ready jobs by shiting on the lawn. Oh, and executing US citizens without due process is a nice touch. If that's today's Democratic Party I think I will pass.

[jhale667]

I think we finally are past the race, gender, religion bit finally in politics. The religious right in the party seem to have a bigger problem with Romney being Mormon than they do about Cain being black. Even at that it's a small number in the party that have a problem with that. It seems like the loudest people sometimes are the minority in party politics. I would say more and more people in this country no longer claim to be in any party. I think we are going back to voting the candidate than voting for the party.


Nothing suggests we're over it as a nation, only that in this era religious zealotry trumps racism.

:guitar:

[FORD]

Of course Romney could always remind Republican voters that Cain is a descendant of angels who were too lazy to fight Satan (according to Mormon doctrine) :biggrin:

[FORD]

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Well, I guess when he loses the nomination, he can always become a professional gospel singer...... or whatever that was :lmao:

[Nickdfresh]

Chain pizza blows cock!