More on Herman Cain

[mrveggieman]

Cain was against a national sales tax in the past. Now he wants one?

Hope he has a towel and sunscreen to go with those flip-flops.

The 9-9-9 plan will lower taxes on the rich and on corporations, raise taxes on the middle class and poor, and just continue to add to the deficit unless there are major spending cuts to go with it. And as far as I can tell, there won't be. I'm all for a flat tax on individuals, or replacing income tax with with a consumption tax, but this plan is not the way to go. Right now, we need to get the deficit balanced out more than anything.

Cain can claim all he wants that those "invisible taxes" will go away but they won't. Corporate taxes raise prices to the buyer so that the companies can cover their tax burden. This we all should know. But the bigger fact is that laws of supply and demand in regards to price will take over. If the people are willing to pay a certain price for a certain product, taxes to cover or not, why should the seller drop the price?

Example: Let's say it costs $5 to make a shirt. But with corporate taxes coming out to $2 per shirt, you have to charge at least $7 to cover your costs. You of course want to put some money in your pocket, so you charge $10 per shirt-- a profit of $3.

Suddenly, the taxes are reduced! Now instead of $2 in taxes per shirt, you only pay $1, thus making it so you only have to cover $6 in costs. Are you going to take pity on the consumer and drop the price to $9 per shirt? Hell no! They're willing to pay $10, and that means now $4 in your pocket as a business owner! Prices won't go anywhere with the removal of the "invisible taxes."

What a politician who flip flops? Herman Cain's tax plan only helping the rich while doing nothing but hurting the common man? Oh no I can't believe that.

[ensbergcollector]

What a politician who flip flops? Herman Cain's tax plan only helping the rich while doing nothing but hurting the common man? Oh no I can't believe that.

dude, you expressed your immense hatred and bias against cain early on so no one will assume you have any shred of objectivity. Until cain does more for blacks you will hate on him.

[mrveggieman]

dude, you expressed your immense hatred and bias against cain early on so no one will assume you have any shred of objectivity. Until cain does more for blacks you will hate on him.

Correction until cain does more for the working man regardless or race, religion, or any other trivial matter and stops catering to the ultra rich he will get no love from me. If being concerned for the working man which is the backbone of our country makes me biased I am guilty as charged.

[ensbergcollector]

Correction until cain does more for the working man regardless or race, religion, or any other trivial matter and stops catering to the ultra rich he will get no love from me. If being concerned for the working man which is the backbone of our country makes me biased I am guilty as charged.

sorry man, you are on record as saying your issue with him is based on race, not class. can't have it both ways.

[mrveggieman]

sorry man, you are on record as saying your issue with him is based on race, not class. can't have it both ways.

It's a class issue. Since well all have to live in America regardless of race, religion, etc and if cain wants to be our elected leader he needs to learn how to work for all of us not just the ultra wealthy. Although I stand by calling him an uncle tom, it was an inappropriate comment for me to make on this site.

[sanfran22]

Correction until cain does more for the working man regardless or race, religion, or any other trivial matter and stops catering to the ultra rich he will get no love from me. If being concerned for the working man which is the backbone of our country makes me biased I am guilty as charged.

He did a lot for the working man. He was a man from humble beginnings who bettered himself and achieved the American Dream. He's an example that all should follow and look up to. You'd do well to take notes....

[mrveggieman]

He did a lot for the working man. He was a man from humble beginnings who bettered himself and achieved the American Dream. He's an example that all should follow and look up to. You'd do well to take notes....

Yeah right, kiss a bunch of backside and brown nose your way to the top. Then once you get there you forget where you came from. No thanks but I will pass.

[MadMan1978]

This report seems to be the fairest report to date
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxto...9-9-9-plan.cfm

I see no reason to even consider this plan period....
Those are facts and real numbers....the Cain 999 Plan is dangerous period! This plan personally does nothing but raise my taxes by a greater amount then ANY so call Democrat plan has ever been written!

[AUTaxMan]

Cain was against a national sales tax in the past. Now he wants one?

Hope he has a towel and sunscreen to go with those flip-flops.

The 9-9-9 plan will lower taxes on the rich and on corporations, raise taxes on the middle class and poor, and just continue to add to the deficit unless there are major spending cuts to go with it. And as far as I can tell, there won't be. I'm all for a flat tax on individuals, or replacing income tax with with a consumption tax, but this plan is not the way to go. Right now, we need to get the deficit balanced out more than anything.

Cain can claim all he wants that those "invisible taxes" will go away but they won't. Corporate taxes raise prices to the buyer so that the companies can cover their tax burden. This we all should know. But the bigger fact is that laws of supply and demand in regards to price will take over. If the people are willing to pay a certain price for a certain product, taxes to cover or not, why should the seller drop the price?

Example: Let's say it costs $5 to make a shirt. But with corporate taxes coming out to $2 per shirt, you have to charge at least $7 to cover your costs. You of course want to put some money in your pocket, so you charge $10 per shirt-- a profit of $3.

Suddenly, the taxes are reduced! Now instead of $2 in taxes per shirt, you only pay $1, thus making it so you only have to cover $6 in costs. Are you going to take pity on the consumer and drop the price to $9 per shirt? Hell no! They're willing to pay $10, and that means now $4 in your pocket as a business owner! Prices won't go anywhere with the removal of the "invisible taxes."

Someone (either the seller or a competitor) will drop the price of a shirt if he thinks he can net more profits at the lower price. That's how the market works.

I cannot speak to the corporate tax part of the 9-9-9 plan, because I have not studied the plan in detail. It has been labeled a value added tax, but Cain says that it isn't. I haven't seen how it treats raw materials or wholesale items. However, like you said, we already pay hidden taxes in the prices of the goods we purchase. I surmise that at a lower effective corporate rate, prices would drop, and we would pay less hidden taxes.


Now, let's look at how Cain's 9-9-9 plan raises taxes on the middle class. This is an overly-simplistic example, but I think it gets the point across.

Say you are single and make $50,000 salary per year. You spend a modest $8,000 per year in rent, utilities, and other non-sales-taxable items. Under the current system, you pay roughly $3,800 of FICA taxes and $5,900 in federal income taxes. You also pay roughly $2,500 in state income taxes (at least in Alabama you would). You save nothing and spend the rest of your cash on taxable goods, meaning that you buy roughly $26,000 worth of stuff (food, clothing, etc.) and pay roughly $2,600 (at an assumed 10% rate) in state and local sales taxes per year.

Your total federal tax burden of $9,700.

Under Cain's 9-9-9 plan, you would pay $4,500 in federal income taxes, leaving you with about $35,000 (after rent, income taxes, and FICA taxes) to spend on taxable stuff (plus the sales taxes that come along with them). You buy $28,000 worth of stuff and pay roughly $2,800 in state and local sales taxes and $2,500 in federal sales tax.

Your total federal tax burden under 9-9-9 is $7,000, almost 30% lower than under the current system. You also have been able to purchase $2,000 of additional stuff. You could alternatively have banked that $2,000 instead of spent it and saved a few hundred more dollars in sales taxes, driving your federal taxes savings even higher.

Also, your employer no longer has to pay $3,750 in payroll taxes on you, and its effective tax rate has dropped from around 25% to 9%.

Just some lunchtime food for thought.

EDIT - Also, if the corporate tax it is truly a VAT, like most people are saying, I just can't get behind it. It gives the government way too much power in terms of their being able to raise taxes in various (and hidden) ways.

[AUTaxMan]

Yeah right, kiss a bunch of backside and brown nose your way to the top. Then once you get there you forget where you came from. No thanks but I will pass.

Pretty sad when the black community eats its own. They hate black businessmen who work hard and make something of themselves but they worship professional athletes and musicians because they keep it real, living lifestyles that they could only dream of.